The Yes Before The Yes

Mark 1:9-15 (Jesus' Baptism)

Day one wasn’t really day one.

When Jesus went to get baptized, formally marking his entrance into his public, three year ministry that would culminate in his death and resurrection, it was hardly his first step. He was roughly 36 years old by then. Have you ever wondered what happened in his life before that moment? What was he doing? What was he thinking?

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him, but Tiger Woods is a golfer. This may be one of the grossest understatements I’ve ever made. Tiger Woods stepped onto the professional golf scene in 1996, and in April of 1997 won The Masters with a record-breaking margin of twelve strokes.
If you haven’t heard much about Tiger Woods, you need to know that he didn’t begin playing golf the day before he turned pro. His father began teaching him the game at a very early age, setting the foundation for an unparalleled professional career. If you want a glimpse of what Tiger did before he turned pro, look at his behavior and attitudes after he turned pro – you will see great similarity in his approach before and after his professional career took off.

The same is certainly true for Jesus. Look at his life after his baptism, and you’ll probably get some strong clues about what was going on in his life prior to his “professional” ministry. His patterns certainly only continued and perhaps increased over how he had lived previously. He had said “yes” to a certain way of life before he was baptized – agreements he would continue all throughout his life. This “yes” made it possible for him to say “no” to other, lesser things that did not agree with the life he was called to live.

Oftentimes, people come to faith wanting to live a new life of hope and meaning, only to find themselves in old patterns somewhere down the pike. I think one reason this happens is because they never really examined what they had been saying “yes” to before they said “yes” to life with God in Christ. The best predictor of the future is often the past, because patterns are hard to break, and continue unless addressed.

Many of you have a hobby or interest that you have developed over time – in some cases years. Do you remember when you first got into whatever it is you do? I really enjoy playing golf with first-timers. They’re fun to watch, and it almost always guarantees that I’ll beat somebody at least once! In your interest, you started out clumsy and lousy until you knew what to say “yes” to. When you figured out what to say “yes” to, it made saying no to stupid things easier.

I am amazed at how, over the years, I have noticed my parents’ behaviors and attitudes bubbling up in my life. Why? Because they raised me, molded me deeply and powerfully – more by how they lived than by what they intended to teach.

If we never ask ourselves what we’ve already said “yes” to, whatever new “yes” that comes along will likely be sabotaged by the old yes. In other words, all of those attitudes and behaviors you’ve been practicing throughout your life will naturally force you to continue along the same route. This has really far-reaching implications for your life. If you’ve never examined your formative education carefully, you’ve probably adopted some really bad ideologies unwittingly. You’re swinging your club like you were taught – but what if there is an entirely better way to swing? Would you still swing your club the lesser way? The way you swing your life’s golf club, good and bad, will continue to be the way you swing. Unless…

Tiger Woods has made a couple of major revisions to his swing over his professional career. Each time required coaching, hard work, and time to get into his new swing. No doubt, he first identified what was not working with his old swing, so he would know when he was simply falling into his old routine. During those periods of revision, his game suffered for awhile. But once he learned the new, better swing, his game came back. It could be that as his body changes with age and maturity, he will continue to look at what he has said “yes” to in his current swing, say no to some aspects, so that he can say “yes” to new and better ways to take him further in his journey. We have to know what we’ve said yes to before we can say no. We have to know what we have said yes to before we can say yes to something different.

You may be a golfer, and would love to have Tiger’s swing. Or, maybe you couldn’t care less. Deep within, I think everybody would want the kind of life Jesus had, which happens to be the very life Jesus offers to lead us toward. A life of great meaning, impact, connected to God and others, humble yet bold, caring yet firm, miraculous, everlasting. The list of Jesus’ desirable life qualities goes on for eternity. Remember, however, that he experienced the life he did because of what he said yes to before his baptism, and the agreements he continued to make along those same lines for the rest of his life.

What unhealthy stuff have you said “yes” to that you are still saying “yes” to? Have you ever thought about it? It is a good idea, from one season to the next in our life, to take inventory of the “yes’s” we’ve made. Lots of stuff we don’t even think about because it’s operating in our backgrounds, compelling us to think and do every minute of every day.

At this stage in my life, I have come to grips with the level of my golf game. In short, I stink.
Golf is one thing. Life is another. Golf is a game. Life is not. The world that raised you teaches one way of life, but the way of Christ leads to life. The way of the world is filled with disease, the way of Christ is the definition of health. What is keeping you from grabbing it?

One of the major metaphors God uses to describe his desired relationship with humanity is the image of a bride and groom where God or Christ is the groom. God has a proposal for you. In Christ, God has bent down on one knee to ask each and every one of us a question – will you be mine?

When we say yes to that question in human relationships, we all know that it means we say no to a multitude of options. We know the only way we can say yes is to say no to other things.

Have you said yes to Christ’s invitation to do life? Have you forgotten what it means to say yes? Have you allowed yourself to say yes to things you shouldn’t have?

For the sake of your own life, and for the lives of all you naturally impact, say yes.

Things to consider…

Defining Life At Its Best…

1. How do you describe life at its best? Be specific.
   
2. How does the world at large describe life at its best?
   
3. How did you parents and other key influencers define life at its best? What did they say about this quality of life? How did they live their lives in support of their quest for the very best life? Did what they say and how they lived match up?
   
4. How do you think God or Jesus would define life at its best?
   
5. How has your definition of life at its best been shaped by the above influences?
   

Discovering The Way To Life At Its Best…

1. How did your parents’ behavior and attitude choices affect the outcome of their life?
   
2. What cultural models have influenced your understanding of the best way to reach the best life?
   
3. What from your upbringing and the culture have you adopted into the way you pursue life at its best?
   
4. Read Romans 12:1-21 and Colossians 3:1-17.
   
5. How do these two passages describe the way to life at its best?
   
6. How is the way you’ve adopted similar and/or different from the way of Christ, and the way illustrated in the two passages above?
7. Which way of life do you more want to say “yes” to?
   
8. If you say “yes” to the way of Christ, what do you know you’ll soon be saying “no” to?
   

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then, you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13