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All in for God

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All in for God

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All in for God

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Are we all in for God? Let's review the ways in which God is all in for us, and why we must be the same for the Father and for Jesus Christ.

Transcript

[Mike Phelps] Oscar Schisgall, who is a corporate historian and a prolific contributor to Reader's Digest, wrote this in August of 1941 and this was published in the Reader's Digest magazine. It's entitled "Once there was a squirrel" by Oscar Schisgall:

“Fifteen years ago, when I was a young writer with a very uncertain income, I went into a quiet park to contemplate a serious problem. For years, she and I had been engaged but we did not care to marry. There was no way of foreseeing how little I might earn in the next year; moreover, we had long cherished a plan of living and writing in Paris, Rome, Vienna, 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 landed, safe and unconcerned, on a branch several feet lower. Then he climbed to his goal and all went well. An old man sitting on the bench said, ‘Funny, I've seen hundreds of them jump just like that, especially when there are dogs around and they can't come to the ground. A lot of them miss, but I've never seen any hurt in trying.’ Then he chuckled. ‘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?… A squirrel takes a chance - have I less nerve than a squirrel?’"

Sometimes in life, we find ourselves living in a tree that seems like a pretty nice place to live and consider doing something really big in our life like making that jump to another tree seems just too much for us to do, too far out of our reach. Just too much to consider and just too much to ask of ourselves. Many of us are aware of the term "all in." All in, it's a common term meaning that you are 100% into something, your whole heart and your whole mind is in it. You are going all out, no looking back. All your eggs are in one basket. In the card game poker, this is that card hand that you have that you feel is so good that you're willing to risk all of your chips to push them, the whole pile, whatever you have left, into the middle because you're going to play this one hand and it's all in.

So how can we apply this to our relationship with God? Can we take a giant leap and be all in for Him? In this message today, let's consider how we must be all in for God, how we must be all in for God. The Bible is full of accounts of people being all in for God and as we work through this message, we will turn to a few of them starting out today. So let's start off in 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19. And we will read starting in verse 19. 1 Kings 19:19. This is… some background, this is Elijah just before he's about to anoint Elisha as his next in line, the one who will take his mantle. So this is verse 19, “So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him.” By throwing his mantle, this was a sign of you are next in line, “Are you willing to follow me?” It's as he was anointed to take on this role of being a prophet that prophet Elijah was. And so he gives him one of his most prized possessions. This was the thing that kept him from being out in the weather. It was that barrier between the weather, it would act as a pillow. They could pick up things, maybe carry some food in it. They would use it as a basket or as like a bundle at times. So this is that mantle that he passed on to him.

Continuing on verse 20, “And he,” this is 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.”

Plowing in a field, we found Elisha, not just with one plow, not just with one yoke of oxen, but 11 other plows, 11 other yoke of oxen. Elisha must have had considerable wealth or that he was going to inherit this wealth. It was most likely his and the state was his or would have been given to him at some point and he needed… had so much land that he needed this much livestock to work the land. So we see that this was not just some small work that he was doing and he was willing to leave it all. He was willing to leave wealth and the livestock. He was willing to walk away from his livelihood — most likely the only one that he'd ever known. He was willing to walk away from his mother and his father. And did Elisha know what was in store for him when he walked away, good or bad? I don't think he would have known. I don't think there's any way for sure that he could have known but we do know that he was willing to go all in for God.

Let's look in another account. Let's look at Mark 1. Turn with me to Mark 1. I have a bad feeling I'm going to be fighting this cough now. Mark 1:16. This is the account that if we read it in Luke, the two accounts are parallel but they give a little bit of a different information. In Luke, this is the account where they are out fishing and the boat is so… and they've been fishing all night, hardly caught anything. And so Christ says, "During the daytime, go out and cast your nets." And they're looking at Him pretty much like He's crazy because that's not what they did. They fished at night and that way, the fish couldn't see the nets coming through the water to catch them. And so He says, "Go do this." And then we know from the account that they pull in so much, they can barely get the nets in without them breaking to the point that they start sinking their own boats. That's how big of a load that they were trying to pull in and how much it weighed their boats down. But here in Mark 1:16, we have a parallel count. “And” it says, “as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.”

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ And then they immediately left their nets and followed Him. And when He had gone a little further from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were also in the boat mending their nets. And immediately He called on them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with their hired servants, and went after Him.” In the account in Luke 5:11, chapter 5 verse 11, it finishes up saying, “So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all… they forsook all and followed Him.” Once again, we have an example of men who were willing to completely walk away from their profession. Two of them, to walk away from their father, to walk away from what they knew, to go a completely different direction, a whole new way of life, once again, having no way to know what the future would hold and they had no idea that going all in would cost Peter, Andrew, and James their life. And we have another example of a person who went all in for God, but this one did it differently. He went all in twice. Once to persecute the Christians and once to love and to care for them.

Let's begin turning to Philippians 3 as we start to describe this man. Philippians 3:4. Because this man was the apostle Paul. This is a man who at one extreme did all he could to stop the gospel message and he believed in it with all of his heart. He was all in to stop this message because it was heresy, it was wrong. It was not what he'd been taught up and trained. It's not what he knew to be right and he was all in to stop it. We get on the other extreme which we'll get to in a bit, we see how he went all in to move… to do his part to move the gospel message forward. And because of his knowledge, because of his training, here in Philippians 3:4, we can see why he was so strong in attacking, why he was all in for his beliefs against Christianity. Philippians 3:4. And this is him describing himself why he was a good Jew, why he was a good Pharisee. In verse 4, “…though I might have confidence in the flesh.” meaning in this mortal body, I might have confidence. “If anyone else thinks that he may have confidence in the flesh, I'm more so…” because he says in verse 5, “…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 the law, blameless… blameless.” And if you’ll allow me to paraphrase Paul a bit, he's saying, "I was a really good Jew, I was a really good Jew. I mean when it comes to being a Pharisee, there's no one who topped it higher than I did. I pretty much nailed it, nailed being a Pharisee."

How good of a Jew was Paul? Let's look in Acts 8. Acts 8, Acts 8:1. “Now Saul was consenting to his death. And at that time a great persecution arose against the church…” and this is talking about Stephen. He was consenting to Stephen's death. “And at that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions 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.” And let's look at Acts 9:1, “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest…” This is how good he was, this is how all in he was. He “went to the high priest 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.” But then if we kept reading, we would see that while on his way to Damascus, Saul has what is now commonly referred to as "A Road of Damascus Event," "A road to Damascus Event."

Saul sees a great light from heaven that shines all around him and he hears a voice that asks, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And at that 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 100% zeal, no looking back, full throttle ahead. But now, a change has taken place inside of him, a new mindset is starting to take hold. Eventually, but very quickly actually, we will see Saul go all in for Christ. Acts 9:19. Let's continue reading Acts 9:19, “So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples in Damascus.” In verse 20, “Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed, and said, "Is this not he who destroyed those who called on the name in Jerusalem, and has come here to destroy those… and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests? But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.” We see that swing now from 100% against Christianity, against Christ, to going all in for Christ and this was just the beginning.

Paul would go on to be persecuted for the sake of the gospel. He would write many letters to the churches speaking boldly against sin, against heresy, and against misunderstandings. He would travel for years at a time to share the gospel message far and wide. He would see the inside of prisons and the inside of his own house arrest. He would ultimately give his life for the belief of Jesus Christ. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians. As we see and detailed out what Christ did or what Paul did go through in the name of Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:24-27. 2 Corinthians 11:24, “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned.” Okay, at this point, I'm all out. Think about it for a minute. I'm playing, but think about it for a minute. We're just three, four little things into it. Let's keep reading. “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 waters, in perils of robbery, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, and in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;” In verse 27, “in weariness and toil, in sleepiness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”

Paul went through just a little bit of persecution. He gave up just a little bit of his own independence, his own comforts, just a little bit. He left this message for us in 1 Corinthians 15:9 which shows his own feelings on both extremes that he was all in for God. Just turn one book back to 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15:9. “For I am the least of the apostles, whom 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.” And boldly preach he did, in all aspects of the gospel message of Jesus Christ and of unity within the church. And you don't need to turn there, you can put in your notes. Though in Galatians 3:27, because he continues and say, “For as many of you were baptized into Christ” and this is Paul saying it. Remember, he was the one persecuting, going after hardcore, yet we see the link that his conversion took and the link that he would go all in for God. And this is Galatians 3:27-28, “For as many of you 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.”

Imagine just hearing those words come out of his mouth, to think of the extreme that he went through. The all in aspect on one end of this… one end of the spectrum to the absolute opposite side to where he would say all these people are now all one in Jesus Christ. These are all powerful examples and there're so many more. The Bible is full of example after example of people going all in for God. But it's at this time that we shift gears a bit and go from example to action. And it's at this point we can ask the question, what have I gone all in for with God in my life? What have you gone all in for God in your life? Maybe it was your initial calling when you first heard and understood God's truth. Maybe you walked away from a career or a job at some point in your life. If you didn't have to ever do that in your Christianity in your calling so far, we all have examples and we know people who did. We all have a… so many of us have a personal friend that's no longer here in Cincinnati, they moved away, but he was a gifted helicopter pilot. He didn't know he was going to be gifted in this until he went to training because of something he always wanted to do. And we're not talking just like the small helicopters you fly around, we're talking the ones that they fight forest fires with out West. That's what he thought he wanted to do.

So he went to training and through it, he realized, "This is fun. I'm making changes, I'm impacting people's lives." And so, he continued his training and got certified to fly these huge big helicopters. But when do forest fires happen? Six days a week? They happen when they happen and many times, they last for weeks upon end. So he was being asked to work Sabbaths to fight these fires. And he at times went through some different feelings, different thoughts on it. But he said, "You know what, I can't do this." Something he was gifted in, something he was talented in, something that he had a passion for, he put on the line and then crossed it out. No more. He walked away from a career that he enjoyed and that he was good at because it interfered with God's Sabbath day. So we do know people who've gone through these types of decisions that they've had to make and we know others with similar stories. We just read of two examples of Elisha walking away from his career, of Peter, Andrew, James, and John walking away from theirs. So maybe you have walked away from a career, you've walked away from jobs, maybe you had to walk away from your friends or your family. The boys showing up on a Friday night saying, "Hey, let's go to the football game," or "let's go hang out with some girls and cruise the strip on a Friday night." Maybe you had to say, "I can't do that." Maybe you stopped playing sports because...

Maybe you could play baseball or you could play basketball in elementary school, in middle school because of games during the week but at some point, your skills got really… you got advanced in your skills. And then the varsity team is saying, "Hey, you're trying out this year, right?" And maybe you had to ask, "The games, they're not on Saturdays, are they? Or Friday nights?" And they look at you like you have a horn growing out of your head, right? Because you should know this, no, they're not. They're Friday nights when everybody's off school and can show up to the game or they're Saturdays when the tournaments are. Maybe you had to make that decision and that choice is I can't play. Maybe you didn't do that and you walked away or maybe you made a decision to no longer keep Christmas or Easter to say, "You know what, mom, dad, aunts and uncles, grandparents," grandparents, that's tough, "I can't come. I'm not going to come anymore. I can't do this. It goes against my conscience, it goes against my understanding in God's word." Maybe you've had to do this, maybe you've gone all in for God. Maybe it was your baptism. When you got baptized, you said, "I'm going all in for God."

You grew tired of fighting that losing battle of your will, trying to do the right thing, trying to take control and you giving into that will and saying, "I'm going to go with it," and then you stub your toe again and again and again on this thing called life and you get tired of it. You turn your whole life over to God and you said, "This is the way I'm going to walk." And you placed your hand on the plow and your hand has been on that plow ever since. Maybe you did go all in. These are just some of the ways that we go all in for God. What are areas of your life that you still haven't gone all in for God? Is there anything that you are still holding back at this time? Let's turn to Ephesians 4 while you think about that for a moment. It's a question I have to ask myself over and over and over again. This isn't a one time in your life question that you get to ask. What areas in my life am I still holding back from going all in for God? Let's read Ephesians 4:22. We'll start off in verse 22. Ephesians 4:22, “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to 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.” I'll pause there for a moment.

The old man is gone, right? Or is he? Or is he? This is the person at the deepest level of who you are that you know still exists at the innermost part of your heart, of your core, that only you really know if that man is still there and what remains of him. Are there any aspects that we're hiding of the old man because you know what, 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 small little ways. Are there still deceitful lusts that are being harbored and protected? But the only thing that these lusts can do, even as small as they can be, that we think they are, the only thing they can do is to rot us from the inside out. Our old man says that these lusts feel good and that it's okay but they are poison to us spiritually. 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 it says there, "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 in holiness."

In Colossians 3:5, it reads, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry." This phrasing, "therefore put to death," literally means “to make dead. Not simply to suppress or control evil acts or attitudes, we are to wipe them out completely, to exterminate that old way of life, to exterminate that old man.” So are there any areas at your core that you're still holding back from going all in for God? Are there any areas of sin that you've possibly held back in your back pocket and haven't fully gone all in? Sometimes we can fool ourselves to think, "Well, these sins aren't that big of a deal. I mean, they're pretty small compared to a lot of that I see going on or maybe a lot to what I used to do, what I used to… the decisions I used to make." Maybe these little things are gossip, are just little white lies. Maybe that's some of it that we still haven't gone all in and we think, "Well, it's just who I am. It's just who I am. I don't think that this can be changed. I've tried, I've tried, and I've tried. It's just who I am." Is that our thought process? Are there any areas like this that you may 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.

We all have those. Difficulties that we have with peers, with family members, coworkers, right here. But you could change. You could say, "You know what, I'm going all in. I'm going to eat my pride and I'm going to find a way for resolution. I'm going to seek out and I'm going to struggle to find a way that I can find peace with this person." Maybe it's a problem with the job that you have not fully given over to God. Maybe instead of continuing to try to keep it to yourself, you say, "I'm going to go all in and hand my job problems over to God. I'm giving it to him because I can't fix this. I've tried and I'm falling and I'm failing. So, God, you have to help me with this problem I have at work. You have to help me with this problem I have with my boss who's asking me to do things that I can't do, that I won't do. I can't fix this, only you can."

Or maybe you need to hand over a health trial that you just can't seem to completely hand over to God. It's one of those, it's too personal and you want to kind of keep that hand on just to know it's still there, just to know that I'm still involved. This one is something I know personally is the difficulty to hand some of these health trials over to God. But when you do, you realize I'm not in control anymore. I'm giving this to God because I can't fix this, I don't know the best way to go after it, I don't know how long I'm going to have it so I'm giving this one to God. Or maybe it's your baptism or the lack of baptism that you haven't gone all in for God. Maybe you've grown up in the church and you know this way works.

You've seen it in your life, you've seen it by those around you but you're like, "I don't know." Is it for me? I know His word, I know the Holy Days, I know all these things but it's that next step. Maybe you haven't gone all in with God for baptism to make those next steps. Let's turn to Ephesians 5:6. Actually, I think we're still there, Ephesians 5 and I'll start reading verse 6. Because you can go all in. We're told to contrast the light with dark as we heard in the sermonette, that there is the light that we are to try to emulate and to go after and the darkness that we're just to eradicate from our lives.

Ephesians 5:6, “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,” And that is literally, you were once darkness, “you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…” verse 10, “…finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Expose them.

One of Satan's greatest… and we'll pause here for a minute. One of Satan's greatest deceptions is making people believe that they can fellowship with evil but it won't hurt me, it won't affect me. Things of the entertainment industry, guilty! Movies, music. “Oh, I can listen to this song. I just won't sing it. I can watch this movie, but I won't think on it after I turn it off.” But you have to ask yourself, is it affecting you? Is this an area that you have not gone all in for God?

Let's continue on in Ephesians 5:13. “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. Wake up and Christ will give you light. You enter a room and what's the first thing you do if it's dark out? You flip on that switch. You flip on the light and assuming you have power and working light bulbs which I don't always have either of, but assuming you do, light flows into the room and what happens to that darkness? It's forced out. It disappears.

You went all in to flip that switch and in doing so, you allowed the power in the house to go all in and to eradicate that darkness. Paul is saying here in Ephesians, "To expose the unfruitful works of darkness, to go all in and allow Christ to work powerfully inside of you to rid yourself of that darkness." Sin and evil cannot masquerade as anything but evil. Sin and evil is just that. It's never something to play with. It's sin and it's evil. And when it's exposed to the light of God, it's got to go. The two cannot exist in the same room, in the same location. It can't exist in the same body. 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. This is something Christians should do in every aspect of our lives, every aspect.

So what is it that's keeping you from going all in on something in your life? What is it that's keeping me from going all in on something in your life? We have recorded for an example in Luke 18, of an account of someone who was not willing to go all in for Christ. We've been looking at powerful examples this afternoon of men and we know there's many examples of ladies who went all in for God in this book but we're going to look at one now in Luke 18 of someone who wasn't willing.

Luke 18, and we'll start in verse 18. “Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not bear false witness,” “Honor your father and your mother.”' And he said, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth.’ So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’" Isn't it funny, there's another “follow Me.” We've heard that a few times already? “Follow Me.” “But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.” Things that he had, things that he knew, he wanted. These are all ways that some of us who have not yet become baptized, we know the truth. You can't sugarcoat it. We know it.

If you haven't committed your life to baptism, you know this way works, you know that His word is true. This ruler could not commit himself to this change of life. The money, the wealth of the ruler, was something that kept him from going all in. What is it that we have? What is it that I have? There is a promise at the end of this account to those who will go all in for God. Let's keep reading with verse 24, Luke 18:24. “And when Jesus saw that he… when Jesus saw he became very sorrowful, He said, ‘How hard is it for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! 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 can then be saved?’ But He said, ‘The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.’” They're possible with God. “”Then Peter said, ‘See, we have left all and followed You.’ And so He said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parent or brother or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,’” and this is the promise, “who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life."

There's a final aspect to going all in for God that I would like to review now and this is that God has gone all in for us. God has gone all in for us. Let's look at John 3:16. John 3:16, I'll read it. We know this one. If you've been to a Reds game or any kind of sporting event, you know this one. John 3:16, “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 has not held back anything from us, anything, ultimately giving us His own Son for me and for you.

Let's look at Romans 8:31. Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” All things. He delivered Him up for us all. God has gone all in for us. As His children, He desires to give us all things. And like a good Father, He wants and He desires that we have everything that we want in our life. Everything that He has, He wants to give. There's nothing he desires to hold back from us, from all of us. As good parents, as we often do, are we not willing to go all in for our own kids, to give them everything that we know that would make their life better and profitable and happy?

Our kids know we love them but isn't it funny how sometimes we can still shock them by doing something so over the top for them that they just… they're sitting there in shock like, "You would do that for me?" And then we're kind of taken back like, "Yeah. Why wouldn't we do that for you?" And then you take a minute and you think back, and you're like, "Well, I guess it's a pretty big deal. Maybe it's a really big deal to them." But we've done that for our own children. How much more does God want to do that for us? And we never hesitated when the thought came to our mind to do this for our children. We love them and we would do just about anything for them.

So are we sometimes surprised when we think about the ways that God has gone all in for us? Are we surprised in some of the ways that He's gone all in for us? In Jeremiah 29:11, 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 hope…thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Notice the words, “to give you.” To give you. To give us what? A future and a hope. What is it that you want to give your children? Physically, today, what would it be that you could give your children? A future and a hope? I do. It'd be pretty close to the top of the list.

There would have been too many other things because that encapsulates so much that we want to give our children and that would bring them so much peace, so much happiness. And our Father wants to give this to us, a future and a hope. God has gone all in for us. He's created an eternal plan that includes each one of us. He's given us a future. He's placed in our hearts a hope that isn't anything that can be found on this earth, a hope that is eternal and a hope that is sure.

All we have to do is watch the news, flip on the T.V., watch the news, and all we can see is people who are looking for hope. You turn on the T.V. shows, what are they based on? People who are looking for hope. This world, not to say this lightly, is hopeless. Where do they place their hope? What is there to place hope on that doesn't falter, that doesn't shatter beneath your feet, hope that doesn't then stab you in the back, hope that doesn't let you down? That's why this world so desperately needs hope and a future and God is going to bring that to this earth and he's brought it to you and to me today. This hope, this future is in our hearts and all we have to do is follow it. All we have to do is go all in for God. This is the reason why we struggled through difficulties day in and day out through life. We struggle because we believe in this hope.

Let's continue on Romans 8:35. Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Verse 37, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am not 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 thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing, nothing can separate us, nothing can separate us. Paul is saying that God has gone all in for us and that He will not allow anything, anything to separate us from Him, nothing. And to secure this for you and for me, Jesus Christ laid down His life. Let's read in Philippians 2:5. Philippians 2, we'll read verses 5 through 11. Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with Him, but He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of man. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

“Therefore God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and those in heaven and those on the earth, and of all… 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 at this time of the year that we pause and that we reflect in a very deep and sincere way of the person who Jesus Christ was when He was in the flesh, the example in life that He lived, and the pain and the torture that He went through in 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 is going all in. This is going all in. So we pause here now and we reflect on the ways that God has gone all in for us. And as we pause, we should ask the question, am I holding anything back or am I all in for God?