BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Memorial Day Weekend officially begins the summer season. That means that people will be heading to the beaches and for those fortunate enough to have pools in their yards, it means a lot more time outside by the pool.
Have you ever noticed whether it is at the beach or at the home-side pool, there is one of two ways that people get in the water? Some people start by just putting their feet in and slowly they might let other parts of their body get wet but maybe they don’t want their hair or their face to get wet; and then there are those that are “all in”; right from the start everything gets wet. They held nothing back. Not a part of them is left dry. They are “all in”.
Memorial Day Weekend is about the men and women who were “all in”; they gave their life for this great country we call America. They held nothing back; they went “all in”. They gave their life for the freedoms that we enjoy. And I think it is appropriate we salute them with a round of applause.
And today, as we continue our sermon series on the final words from the Cross Jesus declares from that very cross He is hanging on that He is “all in.” So, I must ask you this question, are you “all in” when it comes to your relationship with Jesus Christ or have you been holding something back? Let’s look at the Scripture, and I will make some observations for us to consider. Turn in your Bible to Luke 23:44-46.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Luke 23:44-46 (NIV)
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,
45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
POINT #1
JESUS SET THE STANDARD AS TO HOW MUCH OF OUR LIFE WE SHOULD GIVE TO GOD. ALL OF IT.
Jesus said: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Notice Jesus did not say “into your hands, I commit most of my spirit.” And notice Jesus did not say “into your hands, I commit some of my spirit.” And notice Jesus did not say “into your hands I commit the parts that I want to give you.” He gave it all.
I apologize for this analogy even before I give it to you. But every now and then, I will take the remote control and begin flipping the channels on a Sunday afternoon. And I believe it is on one of the ESPN channels that they have this thing called the “World Poker Tour” and they will show you a bunch of men and women sitting at a poker table with a whole bunch of chips next to them playing cards. And every now and then someone will place a bet by pushing all his or her chips to the middle of the table and say “I am all in.” Now think for a second, if our life was represented by those chips, could you visualize moving all your chips to the middle of the table and giving them freely to God and say, “I am all in, God.” Or do you feel uncomfortable with that and you keep some of those chips by your side or would you have second thoughts and pull back some from the center of the table?
Which tells me this, there are two ways not to be “all in”. Not to give your all. The first way is to hold some chips back. There are some things in my life I don’t want to give God control over because I think I can do a better job taking care of those things than God can. So as a result, I never move those chips to the center of the table. Some examples might be my children, my finances and my spouse but I could have named many, many more.
And the second way that I am less than “all in” is that I move all my chips to the center of the table but then I decide to take some back. Have you ever come up to the altar and left something with God but before you got back to your pew, you took it back? And if not by the time you got back to the pew then certainly before you left the church house, you had it back. And the Bible has examples of both ways of failing to meet the standard that Jesus set of being “all in”. And so. we want to look at them and make some comments.
POINT #2
PROBABLY EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM HAS COMMITTED SOME AREAS OF THEIR LIVES TO GOD; BUT FEW, IF ANY, HAS COMMITTED ALL AREAS OF THEIR LIFE TO GOD. THE STANDARD IS ALL AREAS OF OUR LIVES TO GOD.
Let me read you a passage of Scripture from Matthew 19:16-22 (NIV)
16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
18 "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, "'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,
19 honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
20 "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
God’s standard of “all in” is God’s standard, and He is not going to change His standard because I struggle and fail to meet His standard. It is a Holy Standard and He cannot change it because He is holy. In our Scripture, this man was doing a pretty job of giving to God a bunch of areas of his life. And I believe that this man when he asked the question, “What do I still lack?” really believed in his heart that Jesus was going to say: “you done it all”. You did a great job of going “all in.” But instead, Jesus points out to this rich young ruler you haven’t put “all in” your finances. You have got control over them and you are not giving them to Me.
And I learned two things from this story. The way that you and I are wired may make somethings easy to give to God (The rich young ruler had no problem giving certain areas over to God), but it also may make it difficult to give other areas over to God. This rich young ruler had a problem in giving his finances over to God; but I know people who have no problem giving their finances over to God. They trust God completely with their money. But those same people may struggle giving God control over their children. They keep control over their children. The truth is: we all we struggle in some areas.
And the second thing I learned from this story is that I don’t ask God enough “what area or areas in my life have I not given over to you?” Romans 12:1-2 tells me that I am to commit my body to God as a living sacrifice; so, I should be asking what other area should I be putting on the altar now? Let me let you in on a little secret: if you ask that question: what do I need to work on now, God is always going to give you an answer until the day you die? We may be striving to be like Jesus, but we will not be like Him until we see Him face to face. And until that time, we need to keep putting new things on the altar.
POINT #3
PROBABLY EVERYBODY IN THIS ROOM AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER GAVE AN AREA OF OUR LIFE OVER TO THE LORD AND THEN TOOK IT BACK. INSTEAD OF CONTINUING TO ADD TO WHAT WE GIVE GOD CONTROL OVER, SOMETIMES WE TAKE AWAY WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE PUT IN.
There was a man in the Bible by the name of Demas. Little is known about him. There are only three Scriptures that talk about him. One in Colossians, one in Philemon and one in 2 Timothy. What we can piece together is that this man gave his life to the Lord and served Jesus by ministering to and with the Apostle Paul. We first read about him in Colossians 4:14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. At this time, Paul is being held in prison in Rome and Paul mentions that Luke and Demas are there encouraging him in the faith. And, in fact, Paul calls Demas in Philemon 1:24 a fellow laborer. So, we get the impression that Demas is “all in.”
Now in 2 Timothy 4:10 Paul is nearing the end of his life and Paul writes that Demas has abandoned us and went back to enjoying the things of this world. What Demas had put on the altar, his life, he has taken off and he decided to live it his way by enjoying the pleasures of this world.
But before we are too hard on Demas, in my twenty-five years here as your pastor, I have seen many come and go just like Demas. You could count on them being here on Sunday morning and Wednesday night; they were some of the best workers in the church. But today, they can best be described as hit and miss if they even come at all. What happen? They chose to take somethings back.
We used to have a name for it: we say that they were backslidden. But today, you don’t hear that word being used much anymore. Maybe it is because so many people have taken things back it has just become so common place.
Conclusion:
Here is the tragedy. Our Scripture today shows Jesus all in and here we are giving God way lest than our all. And that should break your heart. I know it breaks the heart of the Father. If it breaks your heart, we have an altar to come to.
