"all In" for God

Oscar Schischkal was a corporate historian and a prolific contributor to Reader's Digest magazine. And in the August 1941 Reader's Digest, so this is a ways back, 1941, he submitted a piece entitled, Once There Was a Squirrel. This was by Oscar Schischkal. So I'll read just an excerpt from it.

In the last few years, she and I had been engaged, but we didn't care to marry. There was no way of foreseen how little I might earn in the next year. Moreover, we had long cherished a plan of living and writing in Paris, Rome, Vienna, and London. Everywhere. But how could we go 3,000 miles away from everything that was familiar and secure, without the certainty of some money now and then?

It couldn't be done. At that moment, I looked up and I saw a squirrel jump from one high tree to another. He appeared to be aiming for a limb so far out of reach that the leap looked like suicide. He missed, but he landed, safe and unconcerned, on a branch several feet lower. Then he climbed to his goal, and all was well.

An old man sitting on the bench said, Funny, I've seen 100 of them jump just like that, especially when there are dogs around and they can't come to the ground. A lot of them missed, but I've never seen any hurt and trying. Then he chuckled. I guess they have to risk it. I guess they have to risk it if they don't want to spend their life in one tree. I thought, a squirrel takes a chance. Have I less nerve than a squirrel.

That was his final thought. This is in the first section. A squirrel takes a chance. Have I less nerve than a squirrel. I found it interesting, that article, because sometimes in our own lives, we find ourselves in a tree that's pretty comfortable. We find ourselves in a tree that's pretty familiar, one that we like. That idea and the consideration to take a giant leap from that tree into another seems kind of ridiculous at times. It seems more than should be asked of us.

Just too much to consider. Many of us are aware of the term, all-in. I think we've all heard that term. If not, I'll describe it here. A term called, all-in. It's a common term, meaning that you are 100% into something. You're all in it. Your whole heart, your whole mind, is in something. You're going all out. You're not looking back. Your goal is one direction. You're all in. They also use the term in the card game poker. It's when you get a great hand and you're willing to take every chip that you have and to push it into the middle of the pot. You either win or you don't, off one hand.

And they call that going all-in, because you take all your chips and you're going all-in. It's either this or I'm going home. It's a term that we've seen used before and that many know. How can we apply this to our relationship with God? That's one of our big questions this afternoon. Can we take a giant leap and be all-in for God? Let's consider how we today, all of us, must be all-in for God. The Bible is full of accounts. We'll start looking at one in 1 Kings.

You can start turning there. 1 Kings 19. But the Bible is full of accounts of men and women who went all-in for God. We can be here all day, probably all next week, just going through account by account of people who went all-in, because the Bible is just full of so many. But I picked out a few just for us to consider today.

This is in 1 Kings 19. And we'll start reading here in verse 19, here in just a minute. Some background to set this up a little bit. Previous to this account, the prophet Elijah had just been told by the Lord to go seek out Elisha, who would become his replacement, who would become the next prophet after Elijah. And we are about to see here that Elisha is about to go all-in for God. So this is 1 Kings 19, and we'll start reading in verse 19.

So he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shapath, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelve. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. This mantle was kind of like a cloak that he would wear. It would be protection from the weather when it would rain. They could use it as a pillow or as a mat he could lay out to sleep on. Sometimes he would gather up things, almost use it as a luggage. He could kind of like you bundle, you take your coat off and you bundle some things together and you kind of hold it in one hand.

So a mantle served multiple purposes, and it was really important to someone at this time. And so for him to cast it on to someone else meant that he was taking something precious, part of his responsibility, part of his authority, and handing it over, letting Elisha know that he was going to be the next in line. He was going to take over his responsibilities in time after he was trained by Elijah. So it was pretty important that this happened. And Elisha picked up on it because we see in verse 20, And he, this is talking to Elisha, left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Please, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you?

So Elisha turned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh using the oxen's equipment and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and became his servant. So to kind of expound on this a little bit, we have Elisha with 12 yoke of oxen. There's 11 of them plowing separate from him. He's got his own yoke and he's plowing. So this is quite a bit of farm equipment, to be note, since we're down in Kentucky. Quite a bit of farm equipment that he has out here in his field. And most likely, Elisha had some wealth. If it wasn't his, it might have belonged to his parents, which he probably would have inherited or would have been his at some point. But to have 12 yoke of oxen, that means you had hired servants, you had land, and you had probably a good amount of wealth Elisha would have had here. Because to have all this here, and that big of an estate, to need that much equipment to maintain the land. But we see that he was willing to leave it all. He was willing to leave the wealth in his livelihood. He was willing to leave the livestock, and all that would be his someday. He was even willing to leave his mother and his father to be all in for God. And we probably could speculate, did he know what exactly he was getting into with all this? Did he know what he was walking into to walk away from this and to go another direction? Probably not. He probably didn't know what was fully in store for him. But we do know that he was willing to go all in for God. Let's look at another account in Mark, Mark 1, of someone else who, actually, multiple people in this account, who are willing to go all in for God. This is in Mark 1, and we'll start reading in verse 16.

To give some background, there's a parallel count in Luke of this verse, of this account. You know what? Let's keep your finger here in Mark 16. This message has allowed me a little bit of time. It's not a super long one. So let's look at the account verse in Luke, because it's actually pretty... it provides some background information. This is in Luke 5. And keep your finger here in Mark, because we're going to be coming back shortly. But in Luke 5, it's the parallel count, and it gives a little bit more of a description of what's going on here that we're about to read. Let me see if I can find it real quick. It's going to be... Well, let's just start in the beginning of Luke 5. So it was, as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Ginnitharot, and saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. So this is daytime. The fishermen would wash their nets during the daytime, because they'd fish at night. Their nets would be made kind of of a linen type of material, so it would be kind of whiter, kind of like our nets today. And so during the day, it would shimmer. As the nets came through the water, the fish would see and run away. So they'd fish primarily at night, so that the nets couldn't be seen. So here they are washing their nets during the daytime. And then, in verse 3, then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught them altitudes. And when he'd stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered, saying to him, Master, we have toil all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word I will let down the net. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So imagine that for a minute. It's like all of a sudden, now you're fishing in the daytime, which makes no sense. And now you're catching all this fish, which makes no sense, because you've fished all night and got nothing. And so, in a second, when they had... so yeah, their net was breaking. So verse 7. So they signaled to their partners in the other boats to come and help them, and they came and filled their boats so that they'd begin to sink. And it's just... I love to put myself in other people's shoes. I put myself as somebody watching this chaos on the shore, and seeing these guys lose their mind trying to draw in all these fish. And then I put myself in one of the boats. Imagine that. You're out in this boat, and you're having to call your buddies over because you can't pull this in. Your nets are breaking. You're yelling at your brother or your buddy, like, I need help. And then the other boat comes in, and they're sinking their boat because they're taking... I mean, it must have looked like a circus out there. I just... I put myself out there for a second. Just imagine this miracle, the commotion that was probably going in. And probably Christ was just sitting there with the kind of a smirk or smile saying, you see? Like, what I can do. Let's flip back to Mark in verse 1. Or Mark chapter 1 and verse 16, because this is the parallel count. It doesn't describe it that much, but there's some key pieces here that I'd like to look at as we consider this aspect of going all in for God. So this is Mark 1, verse 16.

In Luke, you don't have to flip back there, but if we would have continued reading in the Luke account, the last verse there says, So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him. They forsook all and they followed him. Once again, we have these four men who were willing to completely walk away from their profession. Two of them walked away from their father, as we saw that Elisha did, to walk away from what they knew, to walk away from their livelihood, and to go completely different directions once again, a whole new way of life. And I don't think these men at all knew what their future was going to hold, because they were going to start walking with Jesus Christ. They had no idea what this meant, but they were going to do it. But they really had no idea that going all in for God would cost Peter, Andrew, and James their life, ultimately. There's another example that I'd like to look at of a person who went all in, but this one did it completely differently. He went all in twice. He went all in for God twice. Once to persecute the Christians, and then once to love and to care for them. It's a real interesting story. So let's start looking at Philippians 3, in the account in Philippians. Because as you can probably know where I'm going, this is the Apostle Paul. At this time, we're about to look at... this is prior to him being called on the road to Damascus. This is his account. This part is after he was called in Philippians, because of course by that point he had been called. But the account here that we're about to read is him self-describing his old way, the old man that he once was. It's time that he was all in for God, but to persecute the Christians. Because we've got to remember that Paul was a Jew. And he knew that the Jews were God's holy people, the only holy people. And that he was trained. Most likely he had most of the Old Testament memorized, if not all of it. Because Jewish boys, that's what they were taught. That's what they had. They had the scrolls of the Old Testament. And part of their training was to memorize, if not the whole thing, a very large portion. That's why so many times in his letters you see him reference back to Old Testament Scripture in them. It's because he had it memorized. So he was trained up. He was a Pharisee. He knew who he was, and he knew who God was. And as far as his understanding.

And so here he was all in for God to persecute God's people. If you're following me and if that makes sense. Because here in Philippians 3 verse 4, we see himself describe who he was. Philippians 3, and let's start reading verse 4.

3 verse 4. Let me find it.

Oh, I'm in Colossians. That's why it doesn't look great.

See? You got a song and I got the wrong book. So we're on a roll today. Let's see. Philippians 3-4. This looks much better. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. So this is Paul self-describing himself as he used to be. Though I might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks that he may have confidence in the flesh. I more so, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. If you'll allow me the freedom to paraphrase Paul a little bit here. He's saying, I was a pretty good Jew. In fact, when it comes to being a Pharisee, I pretty much nailed that one. I knocked that ball out of the park. I knew the role I was serving, and I knew who God was, and I was doing that. So how good of a Jew was Paul? Let's turn to Acts, and we'll see how he persecuted the church. How he was all in for God, but with a lack of understanding then, would Vader be revealed to him?

Let's look at Acts 8.

Acts 8.1.

Now Saul, which is Acts 8 verse 1. Now Saul was consenting to his death. This is speaking of Stephen, after Stephen was stoned. Saul was consenting to his death. At that time, a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. That's one chapter further in Acts 9, and we'll start reading that also in verse 1, to continue to see how Paul persecuted as many as he could. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and imagine this for a moment, and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. This is a man who was all in for God. The way that he knew, and the way that he had been raised, the way that he had believed, he was all in for persecuting the Christians and doing all he could to stop this heresy that was being spread around, this mistruth. He was all in for God.

But then while on his way to Damascus after this, Saul has what is now commonly referred to as a road to Damascus event. Saul sees a great light from heaven that shines all around him, and he hears a voice that says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Why are you persecuting me? And at this moment Saul's conversion begins.

Up to this moment Saul was all in for persecuting anyone who was a follower of Christ. He did it with 100% conviction and was zeal. There was no looking back, only full throttle ahead. But now a change has taken place inside of him. A new mindset is starting to take hold. Eventually, actually very quickly, we will see Saul go all in for Christ.

All in for God a second time, but this time for the sake of Christianity and for Christ. So let's look forward just a little bit to Acts 9 verse 19, because you can see we just started reading in verse 1, and only in a few verses later in verse 19, this is when we start seeing how quickly that he started, his thought, his process started changing, and conversion was truly happening, and in full effect. This is Acts 9 verse 19.

So this is quite a swing for Paul to go from being all in to persecute the Christians to now proclaiming Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It's pretty hard at times for me even to wrap my mind around this, because it is a miracle. And this was just the beginning for Paul. Paul would go on to be persecuted for the sake of the Gospel. So instead of persecuting the Christians, he himself would end up being persecuted. He would write letters to many churches speaking boldly against the sins and misunderstandings and the heresies. He would travel for years at a time to share the Gospel message far and wide, and he would see the inside of prisons and the inside of his own house at rest. And he would ultimately give his life in belief of Jesus Christ. It's pretty amazing to consider and to think. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians to further see from his own words the persecution, some of the things that he went through, because he went all in for God. He went all in for Christ. This is in 2 Corinthians 11. And we'll start in verse 24. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 24. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. I think at this point I'm all out. I'm not all in. I imagine this for a minute. I'm teasing. But imagine this. Put yourself in Paul's shoes for a moment. He went all in for God. And it wasn't easy. It was a lot of difficulty. So once again, verse 25. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeys often. In perils of water. In perils of robbers. In perils of my own countrymen. In perils of the Gentiles. In perils in the city. In perils of the wilderness. In perils in the sea. In perils often. Or among false brethren. In weariness and toil and sleeplessness often. In hunger and thirst and fastings often. In cold and in nakedness. It's a lot to read through. It's a lot to consider. You could pause in each one of those perils that he went through and think, wow, he persevered. He kept going on because he was all in for God. Imagine his own countrymen turning against him. The cities. The wilderness. He can't go any place. He couldn't go any place without enduring through suffering because he was preaching the gospel message of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. It was powerful. And he left this message for us in 1 Corinthians 15. So it's turned a few... or turned back. I'm sorry. Turn back to 1 Corinthians 15. Because he left a neat contrast that I'd like to look at here. Between the old way that he was, but to also the new man he became. 1 Corinthians 15 and let's look at verse 9. This is 15 verse 9. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. So he recognized that it was God who was working with him and changed him so that he could be all in. For still, God, but with a different motivation, a different heart, a new direction. And that's where he went. And boldly preach he did. Let's look at Galatians 3.

Galatians 3, verse 27.

Because boldly preach, Paul did. In all aspects of the Gospel, wherever he went with the church, he preached a powerful message. Galatians 3, and let's read verse 27 and 28. For as many of you, as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Consider this for a moment. We're going to reread verse 28 in just a second. He was all in for persecuting anybody who believed in Christ. Because the Jews were the holy nation of God. They were his people. He knew that. He believed that. He taught that. He was taught that himself. He was all in for persecuting anyone who wasn't a Jew, and anyone who created this new belief of Jesus Christ. We're going to follow him. He was all in for stopping that at any cost. And to put himself in harm's way. So, now look at verse 28 again, and put yourself in Paul's shoes to see the change of thought that happened with him. The conversion was so deep in the truth and the understanding that now he would say this. Verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. That would have blown his mind previously. He would never have even contemplated saying something that's extreme. But he goes on, he goes, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. It just shows the depth of conversion. That his mind changed. He could be all in for God in persecuting anybody who believed in Jesus Christ. And now he's all in for God in support of Jesus Christ and the gospel message that was being shared and spread. It's just, I love this consideration, this thing, because it just shows the depth that God works in our own hearts. And that as we are in this time of the year, this Passover season, that we recommit ourselves to God through taking the symbols of accepting, again, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That we reflect, we contemplate this old man that we once were, and to see the depth of our own conversion and how far God has helped us and has worked with us. And he continues, even though we're not perfect, we fail, we fall short, but that he continues at that moment when we get on our knees and we ask for that repentance. He wipes a coin. He wipes our sins and separates them into him. He doesn't even remember them anymore.

That just shows the depth. As Paul was taken to that level, we also have a relationship with the same God that is willing to do that for us. It's just neat. And as we've looked through these powerful examples, we get to the point in this message that we shift gears a bit and we go from example to action. And it's at this point that we ask the question, what have I gone all in for God in my life? What have you gone all in for God in your life? Maybe it was your initial calling when your mind was opened and you said, I have to become baptized. I have to start walking this way of life. And you committed yourself and you started changing things in your life. Maybe it was a job that you had to walk away from. Or maybe you know someone who had to walk away from a job. I had a friend in Cincinnati. They moved into the area and he was sharing an account of a story of his own life.

It was his own personal account. He was a helicopter pilot at one point in his career, in his life. And we're not talking about just small helicopters. He flew and was trained to fly those big helicopters to fight forest fires out west. To the big ones that dropped the water. They had the bucket underneath and they pick up the water and then they fly over the fire and they open up the bucket and try to fight the fires.

An opportunity came his way to do this, to walk into this career. And so he had to get trained and walk down that path. And he had a wife at that point and he decided this is something he wanted to do. So he went to training, spent the time learning how to do this, spent the money for the training. And he became a pilot and he would fly these missions. But when do forest fires happen? Six days a week? Do they take the Sabbath rest off? We know that's not true. And often these forest fires would last for weeks upon weeks. That he would be on duty and be called into action. And he found himself in a situation where he said, I can't do this. I can't be in this career.

Because even through this, God opened up moments where the smoke is too thick or the weather patterns are so bad that you can't safely take a helicopter up. And it's just kind of funny. Those moments happen on the Sabbath. So because he would be coming in and they're needing him to work and then they'd send him home saying, well, can't do it today because the weather pattern is too difficult and it's too dangerous.

But he was thinking to himself, how many times is God going to keep causing something so that I can't work on the Sabbath? Eventually he knew that God was holding things back so that he could contemplate and think through this. And he realized eventually that he wasn't going to be able to continue in this field. One that he was talented in. One that was paying the bills and providing for his family.

And by choosing to walk away from this career, he didn't have a lot else to go on. So his family had suffered financially for quite a while. And there were lessons he learned through that as well. But that's just one person that I know that walked away from a career, walked away from training, walked away from things because he wanted to go all in for God. So maybe it was you, maybe it was someone you know that had that at some point in your life.

There's that story we saw with Elisha and Peter and Andrew and James and John. They walked away from a career to follow God. But maybe it was another time when you went all in for God with family or with friends. Maybe it was Friday night out. Maybe not. I'm thinking back to high school for me. Maybe it was a Friday night out with the friends.

Maybe it was playing sports for some of the younger ones that we have in our church that they made decisions to go all in. Maybe it was with you, friends at work, that wanted to go out and maybe find some place to a restaurant on a Friday night after a long week of work. Maybe it was someone else you know, next door neighbors that wanted to have a barbecue. You know your situations. Maybe it took you walking away from some friends or separating yourself to some degree from friends.

Or maybe it was family. Maybe it was the Christmas or the Easter holidays that you used to keep. And you had to make decisions that said, I can't go down this path anymore. I can't keep this. God has shown me his truth. God has opened his books to me. I can't do those types of things anymore. Maybe that was some of the stories that you would share if you had an opportunity. I know there's plenty of youth in the church that walked away from being athletes. They played middle school basketball. They played football because maybe the games were on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they could do that while growing up in the church. But at some point, they got pretty good. And the varsity coach started getting his eye on them. And then came that day when the varsity coach said, hey, you're going to try out for football this year. You're going to try out for basketball, aren't you? And some of those young adults and teens at that time would have asked the question, maybe, well, is the games... when are the games?

What time are these games? Most likely knowing when the games are. I remember asking some questions similar to that. And then the coach, the varsity coach, would look at them like they're crazy because they should know this. The games are on Friday and the tournaments are Saturdays. You know this. And they had to make a choice at that time to say, I can't play anymore. And they had to go all in for God and make that decision.

Or maybe it was your baptism, your own baptism, that you went all in for God. You realize that, like me, living this way of life, of stubbing my toe against life, gets old after a while. Trying to do things my way gets old after a while. Hurting myself, you hurting yourself, gets old after a while. And you realize that I can't live this life. I don't have all the answers. I don't have the direction to go.

And so you committed yourself to God. You put your hand on that plow and you said, I'm not letting go. Because at that moment, you went all in for God. And you started the process that says, I will always be all in for God. And it's just some of the ways that I could think of as I was putting this message together, that we have at times gone all in for God in our life. But we have to ask ourselves a question, especially right now at this time of the year. What are the areas of your life you still haven't gone all in for God? Is there anything that you're still holding back? Is there anything that I'm still holding back from God to keep from going all in? Let's look at Ephesians 4 while we contemplate this idea a little bit. In Ephesians 4, we'll read in verse 22.

Because as we read this verse and we consider our past life, we consider past decisions we've made, this kind of paints the picture of exactly what it means to go all in for God. Ephesians 4, and we'll start reading in verse 22.

Which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Consider for a minute that old man, he's gone, right? Or is he? Or is he? That person that we try to push off, try to kick out, sometimes shows back up. Shows back up in my life. This is that person that at the deepest level of your most inner part, that only you know who that is.

Only you know who that is and what remains of him. Are any of us hiding aspects of that old man? Because maybe it's too difficult to deal with. Or maybe perhaps we don't see it as that big of a deal, that he's still around in certain ways.

It's not that big of a deal. It's just a small little thing. Are there still deceitful lusts, as we just read, that are being harbored, that are being protected in our lives? But the only thing that these lusts and these sins can do is they can corrupt us from the inside out. That old man, that little glimmer of an old man, or the however, whatever size, from the inside, our deepest level of our heart, can only corrupt us again from the inside out.

Our old man says that these lusts feel good and that they're okay, but reality, they're poison to our spirit. They're poison to us. Our conversion starts from the inside and it works its way out.

What is at our core must be made completely new in order for us to live a new way of life. As we just read, I'll reread that verse, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. This is that aspect that we're going through at this time of the year, that we're considering, and that we're recommitting ourselves to at this holy day season, which starts tomorrow night with Passover. In Colossians 3 verse 5, it reads, Therefore put to death your members. Yeah, let's all turn there.

I hear some pages rattling, so let's not just freeze over that. Let's go ahead and turn. Colossians 3 verse 5. Therefore put to death your members, which are on the earth. And it gives a short list, one of many lists, like this in the Bible. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetness, which is idolatry. So this phrase, put to death, literally means to make dead. Not simply to suppress, or to push out, or control sinful acts or sinful attitudes, but to wipe them out completely. Completely exterminate the old man, the old way of life. And so we have to ask ourselves, are there any parts of this old man, any areas of your core, that you're holding back from going all in with God?

Maybe it's an area of sin that you have possibly kept back. Maybe I've kept back, and fully haven't gone in to eradicate from my life. Sometimes we can fool ourselves to think of, well, that's sin. It's not that big of a sin. I mean, it's just a little bit of gossip. Maybe it's just a little white lie. It's not that big of a deal compared to so many other sins. But we know to God all sin is equal. There isn't a way to your sin or of us or sin.

Sin is sin. And sometimes we think, well, this little sin is just who I am. It's just who I am. I don't think I can be changed. I've tried. I've worked at it. I've thought through it. I've prayed about it. Passover. Pass, Passover. It just can't be changed. So it's just who I am. That thought has happened to other people before.

So are there any areas like this that you might be holding back from God? What about things in your life you haven't completely handed over to God to help you with? Maybe it's a difficulty that you're having with someone. Maybe it's that co-worker that is just, man, every time they see you, they know the button's to push.

They just won't give you a break. They just won't help you out. I've had a few of those co-workers. You do everything you can to be nice, to practice God with principles. It is just not making a difference at all to them. There's been times I've had to hand that over to God and say, God, I can't fix this person's heart. I can't change the way that they're behaving or this job situation. You can, and we can. Maybe we can hand that over to God and say, you take it. I'm going all in with you because I can't fix this person. I'm doing everything I can, but I can't find peace with this person because they're just unwilling.

Or maybe it's a problem with a job where they're asking you to now work Friday nights or Saturdays, and you've explained things. You've got that new boss. We have a friend. I have a friend in Cincinnati. They've got a new boss who works at Kroger. Got a new boss, and his new boss says, you can't have Saturday nights off. Now, he's letting them have a Sabbath still. But that new boss, we've all had new bosses that come in, and then they want to go change things.

You don't have that relationship. Maybe they're threatening you, saying, you're going to lose your job if you take Friday night off or if you take Saturday off. And it's times like this that we can hand that over to God and say, God, I'm all in for you. I've always been all in.

This is your problem because I can't fix this person. I can't fix this job. I can't do this. And so we can hand that over and go all in, maybe, with the job. Or maybe it's a health trial that you've suffered from, continuing to suffer from, one that you just can't seem to find the right doctor, can't find the right medicine, can't find the right diagnosis.

But we, in our human form, we want to kind of put our arms around this when it comes to our own personal health trials. And we want to kind of protect them and say, I can fix this, or I can find the right doctor, or I can find the right supplement.

But at times, we need to even hand our health trials over to God and say, I don't have the answers. I don't know how wonderfully I was made, the beauty and the creation that God made us, and say, you have to take this.

You have to take the stress. You have to take the worry that I have with it. You have to take the diagnosis. Because I'll do my part. I'll still maybe seek the doctor. But you've got to show me the path to walk, because I can't figure this out on my own. So we can take these parts of our lives. We can go all in and hand them back, or give them to God to help us work through them. There's a passage in Ephesians.

I could flip back to Ephesians chapter 5. Because we're about to, in considering this aspect of the old man, the new man, we're going to now look at light versus darkness. Another contrast that God gives us here to experience and to open our minds to consider aspects of our life, and where he lives and where he doesn't live in our lives. Let's look at Ephesians 5 verse 6.

Ephesians 5 verse 6. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were once darkness. I'm going to pause here for a minute, because this means you were literally darkness.

It's not just that you kind of look like darkness, or you're kind of active. You and I were literally darkness at one point in our lives. That's what this means here. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light in verse 10, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

One of Satan's greatest deceptions, and we're going to pause for a moment, one of Satan's greatest deceptions is making people believe that they can follow fellowship and play with evil and not be hurt, not be affected by it. Things of the entertainment industry today are great at fooling us in that way. And I have to raise my hand and say I'm guilty, because I've been pulled in by movies, by music, and I listen to it, or I watch it, and I'm thinking, well, after I turn it off, I can just, I won't think about it anymore. I'll just shut that part out of my life, because I just watch it for an hour, two-hour movie, or listen to that song before I pull into work. But then what happens in reality is I'm humming that song later on in the day, aren't I? I can't turn that off. I can't just shut that out. Or the scene I saw in the movie. It's repeated in my mind. It's not that easy, but Satan wants to fool us that we can play on the dark side a little bit. We can fellowship with darkness and think that it doesn't affect us long term. But God is saying right here, we ought to have no fellowship with darkness. We have to separate ourselves. And so we have to ask ourselves, is it affecting us? Is this an area that I haven't gone all in for God? That's continuing reading here in Ephesians 5, verse 13. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Christ will give you light. So maybe this morning, well, I had to wake up a little bit early. And it was still dark out, and so I walked into the other room and I flipped on the light switch. We've all done that. And assuming you have power, and I have power and a working light bulb, which most of the time it was funny this morning, it did pop. There's two lights up there, so I still had light, but one of them did blow out on me. So, but assuming you have electricity in your house and you have a light bulb, when you flip that switch, what happens to the darkness that was in that room? It's forced out. It disappears.

The light fills the room and pushes out the darkness. So you went all in, and I went all in this morning, to flip that light switch and to let the power of that electricity go all in and to eradicate the darkness.

Paul is saying here in Ephesians, to expose the unfruitful works of darkness to go all in, we must allow Christ to work powerfully inside of us to rid ourselves of this darkness, whatever of it still exists.

Sin and evil cannot masquerade as anything but evil when exposed to the light of God. When we use God's word and we compare it against our own hearts and our own minds, sin can't masquerade as good at that point, because the power and the light of His word illuminates the sin, and it can't exist. Sin and God can't exist in that same, just like the darkness disappeared when that light switch got flipped on and the light filled the room. It can't co-exist, and so it's forced out. We can try to hide things from light or refuse to use the light, but if you choose to use it, you will illuminate the sin. I will do the same. This is something Christians should be doing in every area of our lives. So the question is still posed. What is it that is keeping you from going all in on something in your life? What is something that I'm holding back and trying to protect from the light of God's word? Put up a hand and pass a shadow over an area of my life, maybe, to protect it from that light. We can't do that. As we are looking at those accounts at the beginning, let's look at another account now here in Luke 18. Let's turn to Luke 18, and we're going to see a contrast of someone who was not willing to go all in for God. There's a few of those. Actually, there's quite a few of those throughout God's word, too. We see examples of people who were not willing to go all in for God. This is in Luke 18, and we'll start reading in verse 18.

It's Paul's for a moment. The money, the wealth of this ruler, was something that kept him from going all in for God. What is it that we have in our life that's holding us back? What is it that I have that I'm not willing to give up to go all in? The next will continue on here because there's a promise at the end of this account to those who will go all in for God. There's a promise that I want us to consider here. Let's keep reading in verse 24.

For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And those who heard it said, Who then can be saved? But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Then Peter said, See, we have left all and followed you. And he said, And I'm assuredly, I say to you, There is no one who has left house or parents or brother or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God. And here is the promise, Who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life. So we have a promise of eternal life if we go all in for God. And that's another aspect of this Holy Day season that we're considering. As we become baptized and we commit our lives to God, we have gone all in. And the promise is already a down payment of eternal life. That is ours. It's presented out there. And he wants to give this to us. And this promise is sure there in Luke 18, verse 30, Who shall not receive many times more in this present time, meaning blessings today, but more importantly, and in the age to come eternal life. There is a great promise to those who go all in for God. But there's a final aspect of going all in for God that I'd like to review now. And that is God has gone all in for us. God Himself has already gone all in for us. We know John 3, verse 16. It's a great place to start. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God went all in to give His Son for you and for me as a Savior, that we can have an opportunity for everlasting life. He's not even held back His own Son from us, that He would be willing to go all in for you and for me, even at the cost of His own Son. Let's turn to Romans 8 as we continue to consider this thought.

Romans 8, verse 31.

Romans 8, verse 31.

As His children, He desires to give us everything. Everything that He has, everything that is at His hand, He wants to give us. And like a good Father, He wants and desires to give us everything. There's nothing that He desires to hold back from us. And as good parents do, we go all in for our children. We go all in for our children, haven't we? Our kids know that we love them, and they know that we would do anything for them. But I find it funny how sometimes, even with my own daughter, I do something for her that completely shocks her, that I'd be willing to do something that great for her. Isn't that funny? How sometimes our own kids can kind of pause for a minute and say, You'd do that for me? Or you'd sacrifice what you wanted to do or you felt you needed for me? And they ask that question, and we kind of look at them and think, Yeah, of course I would. I wouldn't even hesitate it. The thought never really even came into our mind to be too worried about what we wanted to do because we wanted to do it for them. We love our kids, and we would do just about anything for them. So, on the same thought, are we sometimes surprised by the things that God wants to give us? That He'd be willing to go all in for us, to give us everything that is at His hand. He even gave His own son, as we've already looked at. And we're sometimes still surprised by all the ways that God goes all in for us as His children. It's the same things with our own. It's kind of funny how that sometimes works.

In Jeremiah 29 verse 11, the prophet Jeremiah was inspired to write, This is Jeremiah 29, 11, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a home.

I see some people turning. Maybe I'll read it again.

For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a home. Notice, I notice the words, to give you. To give you. This is an action. This is God saying, I am going to give you this. And to give us what? A future and a home.

A future and a home. What is it that you would want to give your children more than anything else that you could provide? Wouldn't it be these two things? A future and a hope that they could hang on to in life? It'd be pretty close to the top of the list, I think, for me. And yet God has gone all in for us and given us this future and this hope. All we have to do is look around the world and turn on the news for a few minutes. Turn on any type of show. And you see a world that is missing hope. It's lacking hope. There is no hope out there. What do they do? They take the things that are important to them and they find a hope to place it on. But what happens? That hope crumbles from underneath it and their hope is lost. So they gather whatever hope is left that they can get their hands around. They come over here and they place their hope on this thing. This person. This job. This thing of the world. And then what happens on that side? It crumbles underneath them again and so they scurry and they keep losing pieces of their hope as what they place it on crumbles underneath them. Just look at the news. And you see people who are desperate to find a hope that is sure, that is solid in this world. But for us, it's different. Because God has created an eternal plan that includes each one of us. He's given us that future that He's promised here to give us a future. And He's placed our hearts on a hope that isn't anything that can be found on this earth. A hope that is eternal. A hope that is sure. And that's why we're here today. That's why we share this message with His many friends and family and our booklets on the web. Because we want everybody to realize that there is this hope that sits out there that can be theirs. Because we have now brought it in and we've accepted it for us. This is the reason why we struggle through difficulties day to day with people, with jobs. This is why at this time of the year we examine ourselves. Because we realize we are not measuring up. We're still finding remnants of that old man that's inside of us. And so we want to grasp onto that future. We want to grasp on that hope. And part of that is removing the areas that we send. We struggle because we believe in this hope. We do believe it. And so we continue to struggle through our life. Let's continue to read in Romans 8 and now verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? What will separate us? In verse 37. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Consider that for a moment. It's a powerful passage. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God. Nothing. He is not held back even His own love and will allow anything. Paul is saying that God has gone all in for us, that He will not allow anything to separate us from Him. Nothing. And to secure this for you and me, Jesus Christ went all in and He laid down His life. For us. Let's read about that in Philippians 2, verse 5.

We'll read Philippians 2, verse 5 through verse 11. 2, verse 5.

Even the death of the cross.

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on the earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

It's again, this time of the year, that we pause and we reflect in a very deep way on the person that Jesus Christ was in the flesh. The example in life that He lived, and the pain and the torture He went through, and the life that He willingly gave, so that you and I can have a relationship with the Father, and that we can have the promise of eternal life with Him in the Kingdom of God.

This act that Jesus Christ gave, this act that the Father gave, is going all in. This is going all in. So as we pause here now, and we reflect on the ways that God has gone all in for us, we should pause and we should ask the question, Am I holding anything back from God, or am I all in for Him?

I'm holding anything back from God.