Being All In for Jeus

At Bethel we are in the midst of a sermon series "All In" by Mark Batterson.  We watch a video for 20 minutes and I preach for about 15 minutes on that topic.  This is such an important topic of our day within this culture which is doing much to hinder people in making a radical commitment to Jesus Christ.  What seems to be radical is actually normal for the first century followers of Jesus Christ.  Unfortunately many pastors and evangelist have watered down the gospel to make it easy and comfortable to being a disciple of Jesus.  Let me say first of all that it is easy to become a Christian because all the work has already been accomplished by Jesus Christ and all I have to do is to believe and receive  Jesus as my Savior.  That step I simple but once you look into the teachings of Jesus it is not easy.  In order to truly make that step Jesus said you need to deny yourself, pick up your cross daily and follow Jesus.  We have our religious practices down well in most churches but what we do not do well is denying ourselves.  The basic understanding of this statement is we must give up the right to control our destiny, our lives and all that we have or will have in this life.  In order to deny self I must be willing to put someone else in charge of my life, that is why the last part of that verse is that we must follow Jesus.  Unless Jesus becomes our Lord and Master we will struggle in our faith and will often be confused about what is the right thing to do.  Being all in for Jesus is basically doing life by the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command."  It is hard to know how to truly love our Savior unless we read and meditate upon the words of Jesus.  Being all in for Jesus means I commit to obeying Jesus without compromise, without changing His words, without making any excuses and doing this obeying with a passionate love to the one who saved us from out sins.  By the way the words of Jesus is contained in the of the Bible and not just the gospels.  Jesus is the Word that became flesh.  The apostle James said in 4:17 "Anyone then, who know the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."  Throughout my ministry as a pastor I have heard many, many people communicate the right things.  For the most part people know what the right thing do is but I have also seen a huge lack among the same people of actually doing the right thing.  James calls it sin.  We try to use other words to explain our lack of obeying.  Here are some I have heard of which I have not found any to be valid according to the Word of God.  1. God understands, we are not perfect.  2. I will begin to tithe when I get my finances in order.  3. I know I should be in church but my family always does things on Sunday.  4. Someone in church hurt me and now I do not go to church due to the hypocrites.  5. I will be there on Sunday if nothing comes up.  There have been so many excuses and weak explanations that people make for not doing the right thing but remember James called it sin.  Let's not only talk that we are all in for Jesus but let us begin to act like we are all in for Jesus by obeying Jesus even when it is not comfortable.  It is this kind of faith that God honors and opens doors for provision, healing, deliverance and strength in our lives.  O Lord help us the power of Your Spirit to obey Jesus and to pursue living like Jesus lived.

May the love of the Father overshadow your life.

Pastor John