Yes Changes Everything

In this Pastor’s Choice message, “Yes Changes Everything,” Pastor Kelly Kinder walks through John 2:1–12 and Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding in Cana. When the wine runs out and embarrassment begins to fill the room, Mary gives the servants a simple command that still speaks powerfully to every follower of Jesus: “Do whatever he tells you.” What happens next is more than a miracle of water becoming wine; it is a sign of the transformation that becomes possible when we say yes to Christ.

Pastor Kelly shows how obedience opens the door for the Holy Spirit to work in ordinary places, through ordinary people, in extraordinary ways. The servants were not asked to do something glamorous. They were told to fill large stone jars with water, and they filled them “to the brim.” That detail becomes a picture of urgent, complete, and continual obedience. Delayed obedience is still disobedience, partial obedience leaves things unfinished, and occasional obedience cannot replace a life surrendered to Jesus.

This message also gets honest about why we often say no to God. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, pride, resentment, inconvenience, selfishness, and resistance to Scripture can all keep us from stepping into what God has for us. Pastor Kelly challenges us to examine whether there is anything the Holy Spirit has already asked us to do that we are avoiding. It may be forgiving someone, using our gifts to serve, repenting of sin, stepping away from a harmful relationship, sharing our faith, or trusting Christ for the first time.

At the heart of the message is the truth that obedience is not meant to be legalistic pressure. It is the love language of heaven. Jesus said that those who love Him keep His commands, and that the Father and Son make their home with those who love and obey. When obedience flows from love, the Christian life becomes less about rule-keeping and more about walking in the freedom of the Spirit: loving God and loving people.

Pastor Kelly also offers practical help for hearing God’s voice: immerse yourself in Scripture, cultivate private intimacy with God, and grow through repeated practice until you can discern the Shepherd’s voice from every other voice. Faith requires risk, and the Spirit will often call us beyond comfort. The question is simple but life-changing: what is the next “yes” Jesus is asking from you?

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Transcript

Pastor’s Choice And Today’s Focus

Kelly Kinder 0:02

Our current series called Pastor's Choice. And uh, you know, I'm reminded of something. And I don't know, did you get the bobbleheads? Could you tell which bobblehead was my? I'm reminded of something uh the apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders when he uh left left to go on to Rome. And uh he said, I have not hesitated to proclaim anything to you that would be helpful. And uh that's really the spirit of these messages. You know, whether it's something that we've that comes from our personal life and experience, or maybe something we found and looked at in scriptures, and it's really just resonated with us. Uh, this is kind of what we're doing these messages for. And we hope all this is helpful for you as well. So let's turn to um God's word

Reading John 2 At Cana

Kelly Kinder 0:49

this morning. I'll give our full attention to it. And I'm gonna, I'm sorry, I know you were standing. I'm gonna ask you to stand back up and let's read uh the scripture this morning. It's John chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. John 2, 1 through 12. And it says there, on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, What does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Father, we give you praise and glory today. We ask you, Holy Spirit, to guide us into these things, these truths that are found in your word. Lord, transform us and make us more like you. We pray and plea today. In Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated.

A Wedding Crisis And A Miracle

Kelly Kinder 2:40

So we see here Jesus and his disciples, along with his mother, are invited to a wedding. And, you know, weddings in that day were different than our day. They were multi-day events, and they would have had plenty of food, drink, and lots of joy and laughter and celebration. And so we see this is uh something very special. And uh Jesus is invited to this situation. Let me just say what is uh really wise if you were thinking of getting married, invite Jesus to your wedding. That's so important. Jesus changes everything. And here we see Jesus coming to this wedding, but there was a major problem that occurred. We see it here. They had run out of wine. They had run out of wine. And uh this was uh this would have been uh considered a real crisis at this wedding because it was not only a social mistake they hadn't planned for the people and they ran out of the celebration uh food and the drink, but it would have been a personal embarrassment to this young couple. And I think Jesus took note of that. So Mary, when the wine runs out, Mary approaches Jesus and uh, of course she tells him the problem. It's pretty short. She says, They have no one, no wine. And I don't know how she said that. Maybe she said it in kind of whispering, they have no wine. But she's obviously expecting Jesus to do something. Now you have to think about this. Jesus up to this point had done no miracle. None. Now we have stories of uh the uh apocryphal stories of the gospel that are not true gospel that tell of Jesus doing miracles as a little boy. Well, that's that can't be true because verse 11 here tells us that this was Jesus' very first miracle. And so this is something that she wants Jesus to do, but I'm not sure if she really expected a miracle or what. Uh but remember, uh, this is so important. He doesn't agree, though, to fix the problem in the moment. And um Mary, I think, just knew that Jesus would do the right thing. She'd she he had been in her home all our life. Joseph apparently is not in the picture, and so Jesus probably was being the oldest, was probably taking care of lots of problems in the home, and she knew that everything he did, he always did well and always could be trusted. And so uh she tells him and she goes to this uh group of people who are called the servants, and he she tells them, Whatever he tells you to do, do it. Whatever he tells you to do, do it. And I think she just knew that whatever they did, whatever Jesus did, it would be the right thing. It would be the right thing to do. And uh we see the problem. It's solved by what? Jesus turned water into wine. And there's more to that story that I than I can actually take time to tell you. Chapter two is just full of great truths. And what John does typically in this gospel is give you the historical narrative that we read here. But below the surface, there's always deeper truths that he's trying to hit around at. And I wish I could spend more time, but I do want to focus on this uh the words in verse five.

Whatever He Tells You Do It

Kelly Kinder 5:50

Listen to them again. He says, Whatever he says to you, do it. That's our word for today. And I think we've kind of heard some things from the people this morning that might hit around at that. But this simple principle of obedience is so important for us as believers. It's the essential difference between uh what we would say as ordinary and extraordinary. It's the difference between a normal Christian life, which is full of all the things that Jesus wants to do, and a nominal Christian life, which has none of the of the glory that we're wanting to see as Christians. And here's the real bottom line of the simple principle that comes out of this in such a practical lesson, I think important for all of us. When we say yes to Jesus, we open the door to spiritual transformation. When we say yes to Jesus, we open the door to spiritual transformation. And see, here's the thing: we can so easily miss the supernatural work of the Spirit because what he desires to do is great things, but we can miss it because we simply fail to follow through on what he's told us. And so it sort of goes over our head. We often settle for water instead of wine. And God wants to do something extraordinary in our life, and very often, for whatever reason, we miss what he wants to do, the supernatural thing. You see, yes changes everything. And that's the title of the message this morning. Yes changes everything. As believers, how does that happen? We're called to live by the Spirit, and the Spirit brings us and draws us into the things of Christ, and he wants to uh get us to follow God's commands, to lead us into the truth and follow through with what Jesus has asked us to do. And so the Holy Spirit will lead us, if we'll let him, into uh really wonderful things, uh a life of great adventure. If we'll just let him, if we'll just say yes. So let's dive into this and reflect on these words. Whatever he says to you, do it. Whatever he says to you, do it. And the first thing concerns our attitude. Our attitude is our willness to say yes. It's to it's whatever. And you can say whatever in two different ways, can't you? It's like you hear somebody say, ah, whatever. Do you think they really mean whatever? Or you can say it in a way that's positive and it's like, Lord, I'll do whatever you tell me to do. There's two different perspectives there. That's a positive

Why We Say No To God

Kelly Kinder 8:20

way and the negative way. And uh I just thought about this. What are some of the reasons we say no to God? When God speaks to us, what are some of the reasons? Let me just kind of give you a few of these. Uh one of those is fear, fear of failure or rejection, where we think uh we're told maybe to use our gifts, and we sit and we we we just sit down and don't do it, don't use our gifts. You know, they say uh 80% of the work is done by 20% of the church. So a lot of times we we have people who are just not using the gifts. God has you has gifted us to be able to do great things that help build up the body of Christ. Here's another one selfishness and pride. God tells us, for example, to maybe forgive someone that we're holding a grudge against. And instead of forgiving them and responding to what Christ is telling us to do, we hold on to that grudge and that bitterness and our relationships sour and it affects everybody around us. Selfishness. Sometimes we avoid inconvenience, or maybe because it's just too much work. Do you remember what it said in the story? It said the the servants were told to fill the jars or the pots with water. And uh some people have estimated that's got to be between 110 and 100 and and 200 something gallons. That would have taken a lot of work to get done, a lot of time. But yet they did it. And uh, but sometimes God asks us to do things, and we're just like, mmm, that's too hard. That's just too much work. And so that can be a reason we say no to God. Um, sometimes we can we can also reject divine instruction or would uh a reason being that we we just don't understand God's will. And so we think, well, this is what God wants, and we're gonna do it irregardless of what God says. We need to find out in the scripture. This is the will of the Lord. Sometimes that is true, especially in the area of just being morally pure. And we we we just reject outright what God's word says in Scripture, and we refuse to maybe get get out of a relationship that we need to be in, or to change our value system to be to live it out like Christ uh talks about in Scripture. And so we can ignore the the Holy Spirit. He can tug on our heart and he does that, or we can run responsible from responsibility. You think even the even the people who are the most godly, someone said this morning, kind of the most godly people uh can run from God and say no. We think about Jonah, right? He was called by God to do something, and yet he ran away from God, or Jeremiah. Both of those prophets didn't want to do and fulfill the prophetic calls. So you see, the problem with no is uh it keeps us from experiencing the best things God has to offer. Things that God wants to do in our life. And we might not ever know it until we say yes. We may well miss God's very best. You know, a few years ago, I heard a story about a South African evangelist, and uh he was well known all over the world. And uh at that time he was asked, he felt like God was asking him to send out a little pamphlet with the gospel contained in it. And he felt like God wanted him to send it to America, to every single household. And uh he was so busy, he's he kind of had a conversation arguing with the Lord back and forth. He's saying, Lord, I don't have time, I'm busy. Can't you just ask someone else to do this? Just ask somebody else. And he felt like the Lord said, You're not the first person I ask. We actually got one of those pamphlets that he said that he he sent out, and uh he actually did fulfill what God had asked him to do. And uh so this is so important to uh to move into the things of this Holy Spirit. We have to say yes to Jesus in every little thing, not just the big things. See, here's the truth. Extraordinary opportunities come as a result from just simple obedience. Simple obedience. Um we see an example of that in the New Testament in Acts chapter 8. We may have heard the name Philip. Philip was an evangelist and he was in the early church. And uh Philip was called by God and asked by an angel to go down into the desert and to uh the direct the angel directed him to go from where he was in Jerusalem to Gaza. Everybody's heard of Gaza. Yeah, so he encounters this Ethiopian eunuch down there, and uh he was an official under Queen Candace of the Ethiopians. And the scripture, when you read it, here's what it says about Philip's decision to say yes. It says, Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran up to it and heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked him, Do you understand what you're reading? The man replied, How in the world can I unless someone guides me? So Philip started speaking and began with the scripture, verse 35, says he proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. So that would never have happened unless Philip was paying attention to what the Spirit was saying to him, and he said, Yes. He said, Yes. And I've had that happen in my own life. Uh I probably told the story before, but I remember one year, a few years ago, we were on a trip. And one of the things I prayed to God before I left was, God, would you allow me to share my faith with someone on this trip? And I kept praying and praying and praying the whole way, all the way through our time on this trip. It was like a week or two weeks, and there was nothing. And I'm thinking, what's wrong? Till the very last day, we came into this little shop right before we were, had a little bit of time before we left. We came into this shop just to kind of mill around and look at things. And uh, as I was over on one of the side aisles, I saw I heard two men just chat, chatting it up over in this aisle on the side. And uh they were talking about uh religion and how you know there were so many religions. How do you pick the right one? And they have studied some of these, and then one of the guys says, I wish someone would tell me how to find God. I thought, okay, I got it. So I went over and actually shared my faith this to me. I don't know whatever happened, but this is how God wants to work. If we just make ourselves available, make ourselves say yes when we sometimes don't feel like it. So these things can still happen if we're obedient. Um let me just talk a minute about how we think

Obedience That Is Urgent Complete Continual

Kelly Kinder 15:25

of obedience. And there's two or three things here I want us to say. Thinking about our obedience to Christ, there should be an urgency to it. Whether it's a divine command, maybe it's uh it's a word about you need to repent over the sin that you're involved in or you're still, you know, living in, or maybe it's a warning that you that you've been given. It's like, how many of us maybe have just kind of had a sense sometimes that we shouldn't be somewhere that we were in, that there was some danger in it? The Holy Spirit will give you those kinds of things if you're listening. So here's the thing delayed obedience is disobedience. So it should be an urgency about it. The second thing is that our obedience to Christ should have nothing left unfinished, should be complete. Everything that God requires, that he desires to do in us, guess what he does that for? He wants to trust us so he can use us in greater ways. So we need to be faithful to all that he's asked of us, to complete it to the full and not leave anything undone. And sometimes we just kind of get it in our minds, it's like, well, that little thing doesn't matter. Tyler, you talked about a message last week, I think it was about uh Saul, who had left some things undone. And so God does care about the things we think don't matter because he sees it all. So here we even see it in this in this uh story. You did you notice what it said when he said fill the the jars, he said, fill the jars, and it said they filled them up to the brim, to the very top. It's a word about complete obedience. So complete, urgent. And then the third thing is we should live a lifestyle of continual obedience. Times when we get tired of doing what God says and we just kind of lay down and get lazy. And but we're not to let things go, folks. We're not to to quit because we just don't want to do something anymore that God asks us to do. We we think God is ignoring it. It's not He's not. He doesn't. The Bible says, so whatever or whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Think about that. So here, our attitude, I just think of it like this. You want to soar with God, our attitude determines our altitude. If we desire to operate in the things of the Spirit, we must obey quickly, we must obey completely, and we must obey continually. Do you think of obedience like that? It's all encompassing. But then when we do, God takes notice, I think, more than any other time because he knows that we're willing to do what he's asked, and he's gonna bring us into some wonderful things if we'll let him. Some of you may be thinking, maybe by right now, that sounds uh this sounds a little legalistic, or maybe, maybe it lacks some grace. But uh, let me tell you, our yes to God is not born out of duty, folks. It's born out of love. And we're that kind of leads us into the next thought, the the love language of heaven.

Obedience As Love Not Duty

Kelly Kinder 18:37

Because he goes on from saying, whatever he says to do, do it, to whatever he says. Whatever he says, and it focuses on the why. What's the motivation here? I think there's a couple of things that we need to think about in terms of why do we obey Christ. Number one is that because he's Lord, just simply because he's God, it matters to know that we know who it is that's speaking to us. And there's all kinds of voices, like Derek said, distractions today. All kinds of voices speaking to us, but there's only one voice that matters, and it's the Lord of glory. And so we think about this, there are then different levels of authority, right? Some levels of authority are down here, some are way up here, and then there's God who's way, way up here. You know, telling my granddaughter no is a whole lot different than telling the God of the universe no, right? I don't actually tell my, I let my wife tell my granddaughter no, but that's beside the point. Here's what Jesus said Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? Whoa. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? That idea, that term Lord, is a term that signifies authority and a sort of reverential fear, a good kind of fear of the God who's in control. A reverential fear of God. And so there's this critical connection that we have to make between our profession of faith, boy, I love you, Lord, and our walk. If we don't have a clear idea, you see, on who the Lord of our life is, we're gonna be miserable as Christians. We'll struggle. And so we have to make sure we understand why do we obey? Because he's Lord. Hebrews 7 and 8, uh 7-8 says, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. Don't have a hard heart toward God. Hebrews 12, 25 says, See that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will be we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. He's talking about the Old Testament folks who just didn't listen to God and lived in unbelief. And he's talking about us, the people who are his church. He says, pay attention to their example. He said, if you hear his voice, don't ignore it. See, when the word of God comes to us, we sometimes ignore it, we refuse it. Maybe we uh sometimes even rebel against it. I don't like that. You ever had a time when you when you've read a scripture and you go, boy, I don't like that. I wish that wasn't in the Bible. But what what happens when when we s we say no to God? We grieve and quench the Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit really just shuts down because and and waiting, I believe, until we say yes. And so here's one of the things that I do is I regularly ask myself, is there anything in my life that I that I'm aware of that Jesus or has the Holy Spirit has has asked me to do that I'm not doing? And usually I find more than one thing. And this we need to do regularly because God's always speaking. Are we listening? So another more reason that I think is another reason it's it's important that we say yes to God, the why is simply this is for the love of God. For the love of God. This is about our fellowship, it's about our intimacy with the Lord. And he actually, Jesus gives us something that's that's really this motivating factor is why do you do what you do when you when I tell you to do something? It's not out of duty. That's drudgery. And if that's the way you live in the Christian life, boy, what a miserable Christian life that is. We do it for love, for love. And uh so Jesus says this in John 14, he says, Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Isariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? And Jesus answered him, Listen to this. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my word, words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. See, the proof of our love for Jesus is that we just simply obey him. That's what Jesus just said. So we need to pay attention to that. When we say, uh, yeah, I believe Jesus, what he said, the best response is yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Water then turns to wine for us. Jesus Himself promised it. Look at this verse again. What does he promise? He says, We will be loved by God, God the Godhead. And I think this is in the most practical ways. You say, Well, I know God loves me. No, I'm talking about something different. I'm talking about God doing something in your everyday experience that go, you kind of go, Wow, that was wow. God just did something for me, and it was like that helped me so much. And it communicated love to me, and you know it's something God did. He wants to do that for us because he does love us, but we have to give him room to do it, right? So we'll be loved by God, and Jesus said also God will manifest, or it just means reveal or show himself to you. Doesn't mean visibly, but in some form or fashion, Jesus is going to let you know he is there. Do we want that? I think we do. Do you want to see Jesus like you've never seen him before? This is the root of the path to it, saying yes to everything. Then the third thing in that promise is he says, God will be so comfortable with us that he'll do what? He'll settle down and make his home with us. You say, well, I already had that happen when I became a Christian. Well, that happened when you were a Christian. He, the Holy Spirit came to live inside of you, but I believe this is more, this is different. It I believe moves us beyond just that nominal Christian life to an extraordinary Christian life. Because what happens is it includes a deep, abiding, loving, joyous fellowship that we cannot know in any other way. And it comes by true obedience.

Freedom Through Love God Love People

Kelly Kinder 26:01

Here's the thing, you see, the presence of the Holy Spirit is directly tied to our yes. The presence of the Spirit is directly tied to your yes. Jesus said this. He said in Matthew 22, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. And then he says, the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. In other words, all the law hangs on these two things. What two things? The priorities. Love God, love people. Love God, love people. And here's the way we kind of live this out. If we're thinking, always thinking about what in this in terms of our obedience is about what God is against. Boy, that's that's not the right way to think. We can we can be so overwhelmed and discouraged, and we may even think, well, you know, we may come up with some legalistic way to make sure that we don't break the rules that we have in our mind and our heart, maybe that we've been bound up with. It's kind of like the old saying, we don't dance, we don't chew, and we don't go with them that do. Right? Um, you're gonna be miserable. Jesus gives us a new way by the Spirit. You know, I once uh I once pastored a church, um, very first Sunday, I came in, and right there in the front as you walked in was a plaque. And it was a list of the the five things that we don't do. The plaque didn't stay around there very long. I won't tell you who removed it. But uh listen, if you're God didn't create us to live against, he created us to live for. And this is where he wants us to get to. And what Jesus does here by this verse in Matthew 22 is that he wants us to get us to focus on these two priorities: love God, love people. So there is a different way. And you're not miserable by it. When you live by the Spirit, the Spirit, with the Spirit of the Lord, is what? There's freedom. Freedom. And we can live in absolute freedom when we live this way. Here's what Paul says. He says I like this, and it's clear. Matthew, I mean, Romans 7, it says in verse 6, as Paul tells us here in Romans, we, but now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. And so when you live that way, it's simple. Love God and love people and all these other things that you don't are not supposed to do. They'll take care of themselves, but then there'll be freedom for you. And this is how God wants us to live. So, well, let's look at a third thought here from verse 5, and that's sort of the how. The what,

Learning To Hear God’s Voice

Kelly Kinder 29:20

the why, the how. So, how do you hear the voice of God? We're talking about, you know, you can't say yes if you don't hear anyone, right? If you don't hear a voice, the voice, hearing his voice. And he says, whatever he says to you, do you hear? Do you hear the voice of God? Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice. So there's a few things here. You say, Well, I don't hear. Well, the first thing is that you have to be a sheep. You have to be born again. And when you're born again, Jesus said you'll hear his voice. So there may be some here today that just you don't hear God. Well, trust Christ. You'll receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will begin at work in you to begin to let you hear the voice of God. Another thing along the lines of what we've been talking about here is to consider whether you're really willing, are you really willing to say yes to the thing that you're holding on to that you've been saying no to. That will hinder you from hearing the voice of God. Then beyond that, we have to, I think, just cultivate this as believers. We have to cultivate it. We have to develop our spiritual ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. You hear the scripture through through the New Testament. What the Spirit says to the churches, for example, let them hear. The Spirit is speaking, and he's hoping our ears are open, I believe. So let me give you three basic principles then uh in learning to hear God's voice. And these are just these are just personal things that I felt like I had learned over the years that have meant a lot to me that have helped me. Uh, the first one is what I call the immersion principle, the immersion principle. So immerse yourself in the scriptures. The Holy Spirit will consistently and preferably use the word of God that we have hidden in his heart. So the more that you're in the scriptures, this is the choice method, I believe, that the Holy Spirit wants to use. It doesn't mean he can't say something to you in another way, but it never will be outside of the scriptures. Jesus, when he was tempted in the wilderness, guess what? What did he say to come back to the enemy? It is written. It is written. Who is bringing these things to mind? I believe it's the Spirit of God, bringing back to memory, as he will with us, his word. And you will be surprised. If you have immersed yourself in the scriptures, you've studied it, you've memorized it, you've meditated on it, you've maybe even taught it to someone else. The Holy Spirit will bring that back to your remembrance. That's one of his tasks. You think, where in the world did that Bible verse come from? But it's directly to what you're involved in. So immersion principle, being in the scripture. Secondly, the intimacy principle. Here's the thing: find a place where you are in private and you have a place to listen, an intimate spot, a space without distractions, and just listen. We don't do that very well in our culture. In fact, it's hard to find a place where there's no noise. I've said this before. You know where my space is? It's kind of in the shower. And I cannot tell you how many times when I've been in the shower, it's like a download. It's like, okay, I now know what to say on Sunday. It's uncanny. But this is what Jesus said, didn't he? He said in Matthew 6, 6, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And get this, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. That's a promise. I think part of the reward is just we see him do works. Mighty works because we've heard his voice. The enemy's print into intimacy principle. Then the thirdly, the improvement principle. And I think this one is simply just consistently practicing the principles of God's word, gaining experience, gaining maturity so that you're growing up in the faith. You don't stay a baby Christian. You stay that way, you're not going to understand things. And what happens is we learn to discern the voice of God from all the other voices. The voice of the enemy, the voice of other people trying to tell us what to do or where to go or who to be with or whatever. And we hear one voice, and it's the voice of the shepherd. Matthew 5.14. Solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern both good and evil. Discernment. And it's trained over time. Over and over, you say yes to Jesus. Say yes to Jesus. Say yes to Jesus in everything. And soon things will begin to kind of come out of the, it'll bubble up to the surface. You'll begin to see things you never saw. You'll be able to understand things that you that you never understood before in the scriptures, even. It's like, wow, I get that now. Because God is speaking to you. It's fascinating, really, what the Holy Spirit wants to do. Well, let's think of this. The task of the Holy Spirit is this to lead you into all the truth and even remind you of the truth. In order to what? To bring glory to Christ. Therefore, the Holy Spirit will never contradict the scriptures. Get that in your brain. Because the Holy Spirit is not going to go outside of the scriptures. He's going to lead you into the scriptures. And the voice you kind of wonder is like, well, is that a God? Well, check your Bible. Does it fit or not? That way you can know. That way you can discern. So hearing his voice. And then finally, let's consider a final thought out of this verse, and that is that faith requires us to take the risk.

Faith Means Acting On It

Kelly Kinder 35:57

Faith requires us to take the risk. Whatever he says to you, do it. Don't just sit there and think about it. Don't just meditate on it. Don't just say, well, that's a good idea, and I agree with that. You know, the Bible says if you stand in the mirror and you just walk away and forget what you look like, that's like the word, looking at the word and forgetting what God has said. You don't ever do it. You just read it and go, that's interesting, or that was that's novel, or that's exciting. That's a great principle. We have to do it. We have to do it. Jesus said in Luke 8, 18, so pay attention how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them. It's kind of scary, isn't it? And you're just, Lord, I don't want you to take anything away from me. And then I think he just says, well, just do what I ask. See, how we did how we how we hear determines the outcome. It determines spiritual outcomes for us. And the proof that I've actually heard, the measure of the fact that I've actually heard is that I actually do it. I actually do it, what I've heard. And this is, of course, is what the Bible calls faith. The Bible says this. Listen to this. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You want to please God? Another script says, find out what pleases God. It's impossible to please God without faith. Faith, we know, is acting on what God says. And all through the Bible, we have this people who have believed that God has said something to them and they have actually stepped out in faith. In fact, we have a whole chapter in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, that gives a list of people who stepped out in faith because they they believe they have heard from God, God has said something to them, and they acted on it. But here's what I know. Here's what I know. The promptings of the Spirit will normally call us out of our comfort zone. We probably won't sometimes like the things God has called us into. It'll be uncomfortable for us. And I think that's part of the risk part. It's like, will God come through if I actually do this? If I actually forgive somebody, what bad thing is going to happen from that? Or if I actually respond and stop living with that person that God has told me not to live with? You know, will he take care of me? Because it takes two incomes, and this is kind of how we're operating right now. Faith. Listen to what it says in Hebrews 11. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. This is the way we are to operate, folks, in the church, in our Christian walk. You know, the thing is, I'm still learning to hear. I mean, I've been a Christian for a little while, since 1968. That's not to brag, this is just to tell you, I'm still learning about Jesus. And I'm learning how to still hear. I don't always get it right. Sometimes I get it wrong, and my miss that and I just go back and re-reengage with the Lord. But the other times, there were other times when I've said yes to Jesus, and I've been blown away by what he's done. I mean, I could sit here, I've had time I could tell you stories. Sometimes it kind of makes my hair stand on in. And I don't have a whole lot up here. But Jesus wants to do miracles in our life. He wants to bring, he wants to bring water and turn it into wine for us, so the world may know. So we we kind of step back from this verse or this scripture. Whatever he says to you, do it and look at the story, the bigger story, what Jesus did simply by the power of his will. I mean, he didn't touch it, he didn't speak to it. It just happened, just like that. By simple obedience. D.A. Carson writes, Jesus' miracles are never simply naked displays of power, still less neat conjuring tricks to impress the masses, but signs, significant displays of power that point beyond themselves to the deeper realities that could be perceived with the eyes of faith. By this first sign, Jesus revealed his glory. His glory was not visible to all who had seen the miracle. The servants saw the sign, but not the glory. The disciples, by faith, perceived Jesus' glory behind the sign, and they put their faith in him. See, when you see Jesus at work, guess what? Your faith grows. And you get stronger and stronger and stronger in it. And your yeses become more frequent than your no's. And your life is transformed. So here's a question. Well, where will your next yes to God lead? Where will your next yes to God lead you? Maybe freedom from a some kind of a addiction or thing you're going through, maybe a secret habit to a to a miracle that he wants to do in your life that gives you sort of a new path to the future. You've just been hoping for something different. If you say yes, maybe it's a revived, abundant life in Christ. You're just dull and you're just not where you used to be. Or maybe you're here and you're not ever trusted Christ. And your yes could change everything for you. And maybe it's a place of service. You've just been knowing that God is speaking to you about to use your gifts for and to jump in. So whatever. Whatever. That means no limits. Whatever he says, whatever he says, is he Lord of all? You know, that somebody said, you know, he's not Lord at all if he's not Lord of all. And then we think of this hearing his voice. Are you in the scriptures? Are you in your closet, your prayer closet? Are you are you really willing to do the things he's called you to do and grow in your maturity with him? Whatever he says to you is personal. And then whatever he says to you, do it. Do it. And it's just a call for us to step out in faith and do something that you've never really felt comfortable doing, but you know, without a doubt, this is God's will for you in Christ.

Where Your Next Yes Leads

Kelly Kinder 43:20

It's worth it all. See, I'm reminded of as we kind of close this out, Revelation 3.20, Revelation 3.20, which is still Jesus' word for us today. He said it to a church called the Church at Laodicea. The Laodicean church was characterized as a lukewarm church. And Jesus didn't have a whole lot of good things to say about him, but he was wanting them to come back to their great things they had in Christ. He said this in Revelation 3 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me. And a lot of people, a lot of us have heard people say, well, that's a verse of salvation. He's knocking on the door of somebody's heart. That's not really what that verse is about. The context is really about something else. It's about Jesus is standing outside of this church, his own church. Picture this. He's standing outside the doors of the church. The doors are locked. And he's gently tapping. Will somebody let me in? Somebody let me in. Somebody take the roof off. Amazing. And so Jesus today still stands at the door and he knocks. To churches who are filled with nominal, settled Christians. And he invites us to let him in, but he doesn't force his way in. He invites us to full and great adventure. Hudson Taylor, I'll finish up with this. Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor And Costly Obedience

Kelly Kinder 45:10

is, if you never heard the name, he's regarded as one of the most important and influential missionaries of all time. If you've ever had a chance to read any of his books, they are fantastic, spiritually deep and uh and really challenging. But on September 19th, he lived back in the 1800s, September 19th, 1853, at the age of 21, Hudson Taylor had had a call to missions to go to China. And on that day, he was at the dock and he stepped onto the ship bound for China. And um he left and boarded the ship from Liverpool, England. And there along the dock was his mother, Amia. For Hudson Taylor, it was uh a pretty significant step. He didn't have anything planned out for China. He just felt God's saying, go to China. And so he decided, I'm gonna go, I'll go. And he so he left behind the comfort of home and family and all the familiarity that was there, solely moved by being obedient to this movement to his spirit by by uh the Holy Spirit and God and trying to obey the call. And um, his mother Amia was there standing beside the dock, and she watched him get on the ship. And as the dock, the ship pulled out, she walked alongside the dock, just watching him go until he the the ship moved out to the gates that opened out of the harbor. And all of a sudden, as the ship got out of the gate, there was this piercing, guttural cry that came from his mother. As she knew his son might, she might not ever see him again. Those were in the days when you couldn't do that. And so Hudson later talked about this. He said, um, her cry went through me like a knife. I never knew so fully until then what God so loved the world meant. And I'm quite sure my precious mother learned more of the love of God for the perishing in that one hour than in all her life before. So, Taylor, as the ship goes out into the a little further out, he he climbs onto the rigging, and it's right as you know how things disappear over the horizon. He's at the top of the mast, and he's got his handkerchief. Knowing it'd probably be the last time he'd see his mother. Obedience. Obedience. By the time of his death in 1905, Hudson Taylor's legacy was astounding. Over 800 missionaries deployed, more than 125 schools founded, thousands of Chinese converted missions model adopted globally. It's called, it used to be called the China Inland Mission. I think it's now something else. But you know, Hudson Taylor never sought fame. He he just, what did he seek? What did he seek? I just want to obey you, Lord. Just want to obey you. In fact, he once said, I often think that God must have been looking for someone small enough for him to use, and he found me. He found me. Is that your heart today? Whatever, whatever he says to you, do it.

Invitation To Say Yes Today

Kelly Kinder 48:55

Would you stand? Father, we're thankful that you call us to things that are uh enticing at some levels, and yet we don't know when you call us sometimes what's out there. We walk by faith, Lord, not by sight. But I pray for these people today and myself, Lord, that we will get beyond the things that are hindering us, even this church, Lord, anything at all that we are not saying to you, yes, Lord. And right there this morning, as you've got your head bowed, your eyes closed, if you're here today and you've never said yes to trusting Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, would you do that right now? Just say, yes, Lord, you might not even know what it all means. We've got people going to be down here, they can tell you exactly how to put your faith and trust in Christ. Do that today. Or maybe you're here this morning, you're a believer, and you know the Holy Spirit has pinpointed something that you're holding on to, something where you've said no to, something that hinders you in your walk with Him. Would you just right now just say, by a decision of your will, yes, Lord, I will do it. Can you do that today? Father, thank you for what you're doing in the hearts of your people and me, Lord, that we say yes in every occasion, on every occasion in every way. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, Amen.