Say “Yes” To God

John Linton
(continuation)

VI. Say “Yes” to Soul Winning
Just say “yes.” What do you do on Tuesday and Thursday nights? “Well, I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.”
Let me tell you what you ought to be doing on those nights. There are folks who are lost and dying. Many of them would walk down the aisle of your church next Sunday if you would just get up and go get them. You say, “It’s so hard these days. The doors are so hard to get through.” I know which one’s the hardest one for you to get through. It’s your own screen door. If you can get through your own door, you’ll find many other doors you can get through.

You say, “Well, how do I get through that screen door?” Say “yes” to God. Say “yes” to God in soul winning.
Years ago I decided I wasn’t going to pastor a dead church anymore. In the early days of my ministry, in the shadows of deadness, I’d never known a soul winner. I had been preaching for some time, but I’d never known a personal soul winner, not even one. Then some things happened in my life. The SWORD OF THE LORD showed up in my mailbox one Friday. Everything changed. I said, “I may have to resign, but I’m not going to pastor a dead church. There may not be anybody else who will help me do it, but I’m going to go soul winning every week. I’m going to see if I can find somebody who needs to be saved and who will be saved. We’re going to have folks come down the aisle even if nobody helps me.”
If you get excited about it, you’ll probably find others will help. But whatever you do, commit to going. God wants you to go soul winning. Say “yes” to God about soul winning.

There will be a few others who will sit on the back pew. They will crank out stories and rumors about you, and they will criticize every step you take. Pay no mind to it. Just forget it. Set it aside. Give it no place in your heart.

You keep bringing folks down the aisle. After awhile you’ll outnumber the cranks and critics. That’s where it starts: you say “yes” to God. Just do it. You say, “But there are folks talking about what I do.” let them talk: it keeps them busy. It keeps them off somebody else’s case. Say “yes” to God. Sinners are lost. They need to be saved. Many would be saved if you would say “yes” to soul winning.

VII. Say “Yes” While There’s Time!
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving of 1986 I spoke in chapel at our high school just before noon. I used the text, Psalm 90:12: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” I preached to the high school kids. I went by my wife’s office just a few feet from where I preached and picked her up at 11:30, just as we do every day. We went down the street to a restaurant.

As all preachers do who are right with God, I routinely ordered fried chicken. Within two or three minutes of commencing the meal, I discovered a part of that chicken breast had lodged itself in my throat and had clogged my wind passage completely. I stood up in the restaurant. Betty tried to slap me on the back. She tried to apply the Heimlich maneuver, to no avail. I went across the room, bumped against the salad bar, and scattered some people who were there. I realized immediately the desperation of the moment. I went over to the cashier stand and slapped my hand on the stainless steel counter. I heard Betty say, “He’s choked!” J saw a little girl go to the phone and punch three numbers. I had no breath. Thirty seconds passed… forty-five seconds passed. I cannot tell you the agony that I began to feel. I felt like my chest was going to burst.

A minute passed, and I had already begun to get disoriented. I was still hearing, but it was beginning to be garbled. I was still seeing, but things were beginning to be fuzzy.

The district manager of the Roy Rogers Restaurant sitting across the dining room came over to see what the entire hullabaloo was about. He was a great big guy. I still have the picture of him in my mind. I looked down and saw his hands. I never thought it would feel so good to be hugged by a man. He hit me once, to no avail. He hit me a second time and almost crushed my rib cage. When he did so, again there was no relief. The third time he lifted me off the floor and jarred my entire body from head to toe. But oh, the sweet flood of air that came!

The whole ordeal lasted one minute and fifteen or twenty seconds. But it was an unbelievably agonizing experience!

I went to the doctor’s office a couple of days after that. It was on my birthday. The doctor examined me, put me on the treadmill, and gave me the works. He was an Indian doctor whom I know. When he came in, he looked at me and said, “Hey, you’re in great shape. Everything’s great.” I started putting my shirt, tie and coat back on. There in that doctor’s office I lifted my eyes to Heaven and said, “Dear God, I don’t know whether You need any help for the next forty years or so or not; but if You do, I’m available.”
I said “yes” to God all over again there in that doctor’s office that morning. As far as I know, I’m surrendered. As far as I know, nothing about me is saying “no” to God. God has given me His blessing day after day.

Noah Said “Yes”
I think about dear old Noah. God said to him, “Build an ark.” I can almost hear him saying, “A what?” He didn’t have a prototype. He was the prototype. I can hear Noah now for 120 years with no rain in sight, not a cloud in the sky. I hear his hammering on that ark and building that monstrosity and gathering all the population that was to go in it. People laughed. They mocked. They chided him. There was one thing that kept Noah going for 120 years. He had said “yes” to God.

Moses Said “Yes”
I see Moses at a point in his life where a bush burned in front of him. He heard God speak out of the burning bush. Moses said, “W-w-who, me?” He couldn’t speak. He had a stuttering problem. “Who, me?” But there at that burning bush he said “yes” to God. It got him across the Red Sea. It got him fed in the wilderness. It was God who kept him going. He said “yes” to God.

Hosea Said “Yes”
I see dear Hosea in a time when he was betrayed, when he was embarrassed, when he would not have known whether to stand or sit or what to do. But he said “yes” to God.

Daniel Said “Yes”
I think about a little boy named Daniel. In a foreign land when the totalitarian persecutor could have snuffed out his life without a moment’s notice, he said, “1 can’t, and I won’t.” He wouldn’t compromise; and his buddies wouldn’t bend, they wouldn’t bow, and thank God, they wouldn’t burn. This was all because they had said “yes” to God.

I think about others like Paul, John the Baptist and many more. What’s the difference between them and some of us? Why were they what they were? They had said “yes” to God.
In December 1988 I was preaching on a Friday night in a conference in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. I told the story of my choking. As I finished telling the story, I looked to my right. Sitting on the front row was my good friend Ray Hart. Ray looked at me, and I can still see it in my mind’s eye: he kind of shook his head and winked at me as I concluded the story.

After the service Ray went to his room and graduated to Glory a few hours later. Only minutes before he had sung “This Is Just What Heaven Means to Me.” It was the last song from the lips of the great Ray Hart.
I couldn’t believe he had slipped away so quickly. Even now it touches me deeply. Ray was just forty-seven. Ray was a great singer, but he was also a great soul winner. He lived saying “yes” to God. I’ve been reminded by what seems to me his untimely death that I need to say “yes” to God over and over and over. You need to say “yes” to God over and over and over.

I want to serve God until I’m 85,90 or 102 or whatever time I have-two minutes, two years, two decades, or whatever time I have. I will say it constantly...over and over and over and over. In Him it is “yea.” Every promise of God in Him is “yea” to the glory of God. It is “yes” -by us. God is glorified when I say “yes” and when you say “yes” to Him.

Will You Too Say “Yes” to God?
Now, dear friend, you have read this message, and I want to ask you to say “yes” to God. If you are not saved, say “yes” to Jesus.

God planned for your salvation long before you were ever born. He knew your need. He knew you would be a helpless sinner, lost and hopeless. So He sent His Son, Jesus Christ. When Jesus came, He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He died on the cross, was buried and arose from the grave to pay your sin debt and to purchase your salvation.

Now will you admit to God you are a sinner? God says you are. Admit it. Say “yes” to God: “I am a sinner.”
Tell Him you understand His death and resurrection were for you. Say, “Yes, I’ll put my faith and trust in you to forgive me, to save me, and to reserve a home for me in Heaven.”

Pray this prayer from your heart. Mean it sincerely. Let it be your prayer:

Dear God, I admit to You I’m a sinner. I know my sin has me condemned, and I cannot help myself. I do believe Jesus died on the cross and arose from the dead to pay my sin debt and purchase my salvation.
Please, dear God, forgive my sin, come into my heart, save me, make me Your child, and reserve a place for me in Heaven.

Right now I confess to You my sin, and I accept Jesus as my Saviour. Thank You, dear God, for saving my soul. In Jesus name. Amen