ALL IN | Week One

We are going All In!  I’m so glad you are here this morning, watching or listening online.  We welcome you to PromiseLand San Marcos!

I have to admit one of my favorite games to play is Texas Hold ‘Em.  I don’t go to Vegas or play with real money, but some guys get together from time to time and we have fun around the table.  There comes a point in the game when your chips are down and you have a good hand or you are reading others a certain way. You know the time has come for you to take both hands and shove the entire sum of chips into the center of the table and say, “I’m All In”.  You are betting everything on one hand.

I’m here to propose that you go all in on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Maybe you have been playing other hands trying to get ahead. Your stress goes up and down, your energy goes up and down. You try different methods to bring you comfort or rest.

Instead of dabbling in church or trying your hand, it would do you a lot of good  (It would do your livelihood, your family, your health a whole lot of good) to go ALL IN with the one who made it ALL.

We have a wide spectrum of folks here today.

• Maybe you are like Abe and Jennifer when they made their first trip to PSM.
• Or maybe you have been kicking the tires for the last few weeks or months.
• Many have taken a step of faith to trust in Jesus for salvation!
• We have about 50 people that have gone through 101 in the last 3 months! Joined PSM. (that’s happening again today)
• Several hundred people are committed followers of Jesus and your lives are reflecting him in everyday life.
• Then there are some who are the anchors of faith in our congregation who have been following Jesus for several decades.

What a GREAT group of people here at PromiseLand San Marcos!

We just want you all to know that no matter where you are in your journey with God, that there is something in this message for you.

It is the same message for everyone BUT It will HIT everyone a little different.

The application to everyone is different depending on where your life is.

Give me a few minutes here and I will clarify a bit.

In the 16^th Century, a renaissance astronomer: Nicolas Copernicus- rocked the world with his discovery.  He stated we had a round earth (instead of flat) and that it rotated around the sun. Instead of everything revolving around the earth, the earth revolved around the sun.  It turned the universe inside out.

WE all need the same revolution TODAY.  We think that the world revolves around us.

We are born with everyone serving us. Spoon fed and diaper changed. As if the world exists to meet our every need.

If you are 2 months old, that is ok. If you are 32, that is a problem.

We put OUR desires and plans above everything else.

Even when most people confess their faith in God, we think we are following Jesus, but the reality is that most have invited Jesus to follow them.

We want Jesus to go right behind us. We want him to do our will and serve our purpose.

What would give you your “Copernicus moment”?

Over 100 years ago, A young man heard a British revivalist say, “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” – DL Moody heard that it shot straight to the soul.  His life was transformed.

DL Moody left a huge imprint. His sermons were front page news.  New York Times front page!  His influence left an incredible imprint on this world.  It all started with one moment.

What if this cold, January morning was your moment when you began to see what God could do with ‘you’ in the way?

You are one decision away from a totally different life. IT is a difficult one. Surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ!

I’m going All In!  Why not you? Why not now?

As the Israelites were knocking on the door of the Promised Land, their leader (Joshua) sensed the urgency of the moment and was compelled to tell his people.  “Before we all go in to conquer Jericho, Lets make sure we are All In with God.”

Joshua 3:5  Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”

This pattern is continuous throughout the bible.

Consecration is not a thing we do or items we check off a list:

• Keeping the 10 Commandments
• Sharing your Faith with Your Friends
• Leading a Small Group
• Going on a Missions Trip

Consecration comes before all of these wonderful attributes of Christian living.

Consecration is not behavior modification, adhering to a moral code, or doing good things for others.

Consecration means:

• To be set apart
• To dethrone yourself and Enthrone Jesus Christ
• A Complete Divestiture of all Self-Interest
• Giving God Complete Veto Power
• An Understanding that Every Ounce of Energy and Every Penny Possessed is a Gift From and For God
• An Ever-Deepening Love of Jesus, Trust in Jesus, and Obedience to Jesus.

Mark Batterson wrote a book called All In last year.  He says, “Consecration is going all in and all out for the All in All. “

Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

It might seem scary to think we are dying and that means boredom, no relief, no comfort, etc.  HOWEVER, We don’t remain dead!

We don’t truly come alive until we die to self.

We don’t find our self until we lose our self in the cause of Christ.

It is time to Go ALL IN!

This is WHY over the next 21 days, we will fast and pray.

We are fasting and praying to lose ourselves.

To make sure that there is no Robin left in the mix.

Just like you need to take your car into the shop for oil change, filter change, tune up.

You can have the tendency to drift from a life of completely trusting in God, to sort of leaning on your own understanding.

In the next 21 days, my focus is to make sure that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is completely saturating:

• every thought,
• every concept of life,
• every response to my wife,
• every goal of my physical body,
• every song that I sing in church,
• every sermon that I preach to my church,
• every response to failure,
• every pain in my body.

It is my desire that all parts of my ROBIN life are dead and that every thing I say, think, believe, respond with, daydream about, is completely centered around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The Gospel is that while we were sinners Christ died for us.

I am saved and have a place in heaven with Jesus forever because of His love for me!

Humans have spent our existence on earth fighting for our survival, doubting God, making our own path, believing in ourselves, thinking that our logic is the best option.  All the while, God has a better way.  All the while God still loves us and desires relationship with us IN THE MIDST OF OUR DISOBEDIENCE.

While the world is full of bad news: failure, disease, financial ruin, abuse, neglect, divorce, anger…

The Good News is that an event happened.  An event that bought and brought a future of complete reconciliation.  Complete healing. An event that would reverse and remove all the pain and suffering of the entire world.  This event happened a long time ago but it brought us a glimpse of future perfection.

The entity that represents complete beauty, perfection, love, understanding, unity, creation, light came to the earth, lived as a man, took on the sins of the world. Bore the weight of our disobedience.

He loves us so much that HE makes up the difference of our inconsistency and shortcomings.

• Acts 2:21…whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
• 1 John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• Romans 10: 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

The fact that we can be saved from this present world and be a part of ushering in the complete restoration of all things is great news.

Your life right now could be a picture or a foreshadowing of what heaven will look like someday for everyone.

In order for this to happen, the current status of your life all must die:

• depending on your own desires,
• fighting your own battles,
• figuring things out on your own,
• making your own decisions,
• not submitting to a higher power

It dies out. (not to some hypothetical concept or religious process)

It dies out to a man (Jesus the Christ) and an event that he accomplished.

The process of dying is consecration. 

We are not dedicating our life to God. We are consecrating our life to God.

Dedication means I take what I am and give it to God. 

This is admirable, but not salvation.  Consecrating means I will die and be reborn through Christ. 

When we die out, we are consecrating our life TO something else.  A different way.

Fasting helps us understand if we are completely dead and reborn in Christ or simply adding God to our self-centered existence.

Fasting and other disciplines could be done without a heart for God. They could be added to our self-centered existence in hopes that they would single handily center us around God.

For example, we could go without food as a sort of suffering.  We would hope this suffering would earn our separation from sin and would make us holy.  We would start fasting with our same self-centered intentions of life and believe that our efforts of fasting do a work (unknowingly).  We would supposedly have a moment that these practices would single handily transform us.  We would wake up different because our efforts paid off.  On the other hand, when we came up short with the efforts (we cheated on the fast, we didn’t pray, etc) we would have a sense of failure. We would feel that we had mad God mad and cut ourselves off from blessing and new life.

Instead of this point of view, consecration begins with the desire to die out to the old nature. Our death is accompanied with practices that reinforce the death.  Our fasting reminds us frequently throughout the day. What does it remind us of?

It should be a continual reminder that our lives are centered around the Gospel message.

We ask ourselves, “What part of me is still alive?  What part of me is still not consecrated to God.”

Practically, we think, “Who have I not forgiven? Who in my life am I trying to fix or want them to do something in order for me to forgive?”

As long as there are things people have to do in order for me to forgive, then I am not displaying the gospel message (forgiveness based on love/God not works).  When I die, then there is nothing left in me to care about restitution.  Death means that I have nothing to be paid back to or I have no hands in which to hold a grudge. I am able to forgive freely AFTER death. I no longer care about someone earning forgiveness and I have the strength of God/Love that gives me ability to move forward.

This might seem like a depressing life or one that is void of color.  However, quite the opposite happens.  When we are dead to our old life, God’s powerful Spirit finds a temple to dwell in and we find ourselves filled with his Presence.  This is where abundant life lives.

Peter Dusan, “College students are looking for a good time and an adventure. They find one with alcohol, drugs, sex.  What they don’t understand is that the Gospel is a greater adrenaline rush than sin.  The best way to avoid the influence of the world is to influence the world for Jesus.”

Practically, we think, ”What is causing me stress or anger? What in my life is causing me to not have hope in the future?”

Is there anything still ‘living’ in my mind causing me to doubt the Word of God?  It must die.  I must consecrate all thinking to Christ.  All my logic and reasoning that is not based on the gospel must die.  The gospel says that whosoever trusts in Christ will have everlasting life.  We will not perish. At some point all things will be resolved and we will live as if nothing bad ever happened.  What part of my thinking is not resting in that hope?  What part of my old selfish life is still living and not consecrated to God?

Prayer, Fasting, and Scripture all lead us through this line of thinking and dying.

When we consider how God saved us, it is inspiring and we want to respond with great works.  We want to do something BIG for him.  Our best response is not doing something awesome, but simply remaining dead.  If we are consecrated to him, then he has a vessel to do something awesome in.  He does the awesome stuff.  We remain available (out of the way).

21 Days Details

Over the next 21 days we will be praying and fasting as a church body. We invite everyone to join us (whether you are a member or not). If not, then you can join today by attending 101 after the 11am service.

You received a handout today with more information on how to fast and what to pray for.  Start today, start tomorrow, start Tuesday (after you eat your BCS Championship nachos).  The specific days and details are not important to me or anyone else. This is completely between you and God. However, we are here to walk with each other.

Communion

We are concluding our service today with communion.  This is a method Jesus gave us to remember what he did and re-center around him.  I can think of no better way to start our 21 days, than to eat communion with you and then go!

1 Corinthians 11:23 On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.