All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life - Hardcover

Batterson, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0310333059 ISBN 13: 9780310333050

Publisher: Zondervan, 2013

Synopsis

Christians who want to take the next step in their faith walk need look no further. It's time to ante up and go all in with God.

The Gospel costs nothing. You can't earn it or buy it. It can only be received as a free gift, which is compliments of God's grace. It doesn't cost anything, but it demands everything. It demands that we go "all in," putting all that we have into God's hands. 

But why do so many Christians hesitate to do that? And when did we start believing that the Gospel is an insurance plan? We're afraid that if we go all in that we might miss out on what life has to offer. But Jesus did not die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.

So, let's step out of spiritual no man's land and kneel at the foot of the cross of Christ and surrender to his lordship. It's time to dethrone yourself and enthrone Christ as king, and Pastor Mark Batterson is here to show you how.

Using his customary vivid, contemporary illustrations, as well as biblical characters like Shamgar, Elisha, Jonathan, and even Judas, you will be challenged to trade what Batterson calls "inverted Christianity" for true discipleship as you strip away your excuses and inhibitions and follow God completely.

It's now or never. Are you ready to go all in and all out for God?

Also available: All In student edition, video curriculum, and study guide.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Batterson is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen books, including The Circle Maker, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, and Chase the Lion. He is the lead pastor of National Community Church, one of the most innovative and influential churches in America. One church with seven campuses, NCC also owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, the Miracle Theatre, and the DC Dream Center. Mark holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Regent University. He and his wife Lora, have three children and live on Capitol Hill. 

 

 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

All In

you are one decision away from a totally different life

By Mark Batterson

ZONDERVAN

Copyright © 2013 Mark Batterson
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-310-33305-0

Contents

NOW OR NEVER...............................................................
1. Pack Your Coffin........................................................
13
2. The Inverted Gospel.....................................................
15
3. Draw the Line...........................................................
23
ALL IN.....................................................................
4. Charge..................................................................
35
5. This Is Only a Test.....................................................
41
6. Burn the Ships..........................................................
51
7. Crash the Party.........................................................
63
ALL OUT....................................................................
8. Rim Huggers.............................................................
75
9. Climb the Cliff.........................................................
81
10. Build the Ark..........................................................
93
11. Grab Your Oxgoad.......................................................
103
ALL IN ALL.................................................................
12. SDG....................................................................
117
13. Throw Down Your Staff..................................................
123
14. Take a Stand...........................................................
137
15. Thirty Pieces of Silver................................................
147
ALL OR NOTHING.............................................................
16. The Idol that Provokes to Jealousy.....................................
161
17. One Decision Away......................................................
171
Acknowledgments............................................................
173
Notes......................................................................
175

CHAPTER 1

PACKYOURCOFFIN

A century ago, a band of brave souls became known as one-waymissionaries. They purchased single tickets to the mission fieldwithout the return half. And instead of suitcases, they packed theirfew earthly belongings into coffins. As they sailed out of port, theywaved good-bye to everyone they loved, everything they knew. Theyknew they'd never return home.

A. W. Milne was one of those missionaries. He set sail for the NewHebrides in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunterswho lived there had martyred every missionary before him. Milne didnot fear for his life, because he had already died to himself. His coffinwas packed. For thirty-five years, he lived among that tribe and lovedthem. When he died, tribe members buried him in the middle of theirvillage and inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone:

When he came there was no light.When he left there was no darkness.

When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safeplaces to do easy things? That faithfulness is holding the fort? Thatplaying it safe is safe? That there is any greater privilege than sacrifice?That radical is anything but normal?

Jesus didn't die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.

Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It's storming the gates of hell.

The will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan.

The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn't radical.It's normal.

It's time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely atdeath.

It's time to go all in and all out for the All in All.

Pack your coffin!

CHAPTER 2

THEINVERTEDGOSPEL

In the sixteenth century, the Renaissance astronomer NicholasCopernicus challenged the belief that the earth was the center ofthe universe. Copernicus argued that the sun didn't revolve aroundthe earth, but rather that the earth revolved around the sun. TheCopernican Revolution turned the scientific world upside down byturning the universe inside out.

In much the same way, each one of us needs to experience our ownCopernican Revolution. The paradigm shift happens when we cometo terms with the fact that the world doesn't revolve around us. Butthat's a tough pill to swallow.

When we are born into this world, the world revolves around us.We're spoon-fed on the front end and diaper-changed on the backend. It's as if the entire world exists to meet our every need. Andthat's fine if you are a two-month-old baby. If you're twenty-two, it'sa problem!

Newsflash: You are not the center of the universe!

At its core, sinfulness is selfishness. It's enthroning yourself — yourdesires, your needs, your plans — above all else. You may still seekGod, but you don't seek Him first. You seek Him second or third orseventh. You may sing " Jesus at the center of it all," but what you reallywant is for people to bow down to you as you bow down to Christ.It's a subtle form of selfishness that masquerades as spirituality, butit's not Christ-centric. It's me-centric. It's less about us serving Hispurposes and more about Him serving our purposes.

I call it the inverted gospel.

Who's Following Who

Most people in most churches think they are following Jesus, but I'mnot so sure. They may think they are following Jesus, but the realityis this: they have invited Jesus to follow them. They call Him Savior,but they've never surrendered to Him as Lord. And I was one ofthem. Trust me, I didn't want to go anywhere without Jesus right therebehind me. But I wanted Jesus to follow me, to serve my purposes, todo my will.

It wasn't until I was a nineteen-year-old freshman at the Universityof Chicago that I had my Copernican Revolution. It started withthis question: Lord, what do You want me to do with my life? That'sa dangerous question to ask God, but not nearly as dangerous as notasking that question!

I got tired of calling the shots. Honestly, I wasn't very good at playingGod. Plus it was exhausting. I stopped trying to "find myself" anddecided to seek God. I couldn't read His Word enough. I got up earlyto pray. I even fasted for the first time in my life. I meant business. Infact, business as usual went out of business. For the first time in mylife, I put Him first.

On the last day of summer vacation, I got up at the crack of dawnto do a prayer walk. Our family was vacationing at Lake Ida in Alexandria,Minnesota. The dirt road I walked down may as well havebeen the road to Emmaus. The cow pasture I walked through may aswell have been the back side of the Sinai Desert with a burning bush.After months of asking, I finally got an answer to my question. I knewwhat God wanted me to do with my life.

On the first day of my sophomore year, I walked into the admissionsoffice at the University of Chicago and told them I was transferringto a Bible college in Springfield, Missouri, to pursue full-timeministry. The guidance counselor thought I was crazy. So did a fewfriends and family members. Giving up a full-ride scholarship to oneof the top-ranked universities in the country didn't make much senseon paper. The logical and practical thing to do would have been tofinish my undergrad studies at the U of C and then go to seminary,but I knew this was my all-or-nothing, now-or-never moment. I knewI needed to quit hedging my bets, push all my chips to the middle ofthe table, and go all in with God.

Was it a gut-wrenching decision? Yes. Did I ever second-guessit? More than once! But the true adventure of following Jesus didn'tbegin until I went all in. That is the day I stopped asking Jesus to followme and decided to follow Him.

Let me ask the question: Who's following who?

Are you following Jesus?

Or have you inverted the gospel by inviting Jesus to follow you?

Each year, I have the privilege of speaking to tens of thousands ofpeople at churches and conferences all across the country. At first,I was shocked by the response, in a Christian audience, to a simpleinvitation. When I invited people to follow Jesus, about 50 percentwould typically respond. What's astounding about that percentage isthe simple fact that 100 percent of them thought they were alreadyfollowing Jesus. They weren't. They had inverted the gospel. Theybought in, but they hadn't sold out. They were half in and half out.

At first, I thought this was an anomaly. How could half of us get itbackward? Now I'm afraid it's normative. And if it is, then we desperatelyneed a new normal.

Holy Dare

More than a hundred years ago, a British revivalist issued a holy darethat would change a life, a city, and a generation. That timeless challengeechoes across every generation: "The world has yet to see whatGod will do with and for and through and in and by the man who isfully and wholly consecrated to Him."

The original hearer of that call to consecration was D. L. Moody.When those words hit his eardrums, they didn't just fire acrosssynapses and register in his auditory cortex. They shot straight to hissoul. That call to consecration defined his life. And his life, in turn,defined consecration.

It was Moody's all in moment.

Maybe this is yours?

In The Circle Maker, the prequel to this book, I wrote about theimportance of prayer. It's the difference between the best you can doand the best God can do. You've got to pray a circle around the promisesof God the same way the Israelites circled Jericho. And you keepcircling until He answers. But you can't just pray like it depends onGod. You also have to work like it depends on you. You can't just drawthe circle. You also have to draw a line in the sand.

You are only one decision away from a totally different life. Ofcourse, it will probably be the toughest decision you'll ever make. Butif you have the courage to completely surrender yourself to the lordshipof Jesus Christ, there is no telling what God will do. All bets areoff because all bets are on God.

D. L. Moody left an indelible imprint on his generation. In thelate 1800s, his sermons contributed to a great spiritual awakeningworldwide. And more than a century later, his passion for the gospelcontinues to indirectly influence millions of people through MoodyChurch, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers.

Moody left an amazing legacy, but it all started with a call to consecration.It always does. And nothing has changed. The world has yetto see what God will do with and for and through and in and by theman who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.

Why not you?

Why not now?

Amazing Things

Anytime God is about to do something amazing in our lives, Hecalls us to consecrate ourselves to Him. That pattern was establishedright before the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and conquered thePromised Land.

"Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazingthings among you."

Here's our fundamental problem: we try to do God's job for Him. Wewant to do amazing things for God. And that seems noble, but we'vegot it backward. God wants to do amazing things for us. That's Hisjob, not ours. Our job is consecration. That's it. And if we do our job,God will most certainly do His.

Before I tell you what consecration is, let me tell you what it isn't.

It's not going to church once a week.

It's not daily devotions.

It's not fasting during Lent.

It's not keeping the Ten Commandments.

It's not sharing your faith with friends.

It's not giving God the tithe.

It's not repeating the sinner's prayer.

It's not volunteering for a ministry.

It's not leading a small group.

It's not raising your hands in worship.

It's not going on a mission trip.

All of those things are good things, but that isn't consecration.It's more than behavior modification. It's more than conformity to amoral code. It's more than doing good deeds. It's something deeper,something truer.

The word consecrate means to set yourself apart. By definition, consecrationdemands full devotion. It's dethroning yourself and enthroningJesus Christ. It's the complete divestiture of all self-interest. It'sgiving God veto power. It's surrendering all of you to all of Him. It's asimple recognition that every second of time, every ounce of energy,and every penny of money is a gift from God and for God. Consecrationis an ever-deepening love for Jesus, a childlike trust in the heavenlyFather, and a blind obedience to the Holy Spirit. Consecration isall that and a thousand things more. But for the sake of simplicity, letme give you my personal definition of consecration.

Consecration is going all in and all out for the All in All.

All In

My greatest concern as a pastor is that people can go to church everyweek of their lives and never go all in with Jesus Christ. They can followthe rules but never follow Christ. I'm afraid we've cheapened thegospel by allowing people to buy in without selling out. We've madeit too convenient, too comfortable. We've given people just enoughJesus to be bored but not enough to feel the surge of holy adrenalinethat courses through your veins when you decide to follow Him nomatter what, no matter where, no matter when.

The Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaardbelieved that boredom was the root of all evil. In other words, boredomisn't just boring. It's wrong. You cannot be in the presence ofGod and be bored at the same time. For that matter, you cannot bein the will of God and be bored at the same time. If you follow in thefootsteps of Jesus, it will be anything but boring.

The choice is yours — consecration or boredom? It's one or theother. If you don't consecrate yourself to Christ, you'll get bored. Ifyou do, you won't. And that is where the battle is won or lost. If youdon't go all in, you'll never enter the Promised Land. But if you go allout, God will part the Jordan River so you can cross through on dryground.

Stop trying to do God's job for Him. You don't have to do amazingthings. You can't do amazing things. Amazing always begins with consecration.It's the catalyst behind every spiritual growth spurt, everykingdom cause, and every revival. And just as amazing always beginswith consecration, consecration always ends with amazing.

When you look back on your life, the greatest moments will bethe moments when you went all in. It's as true today as it was the dayAbraham placed Isaac on the altar, the day Jonathan climbed a cliff tofight the Philistines, and the day Peter got out of the boat and walkedon water.

In the pages that follow, we'll look at a dozen all in moments thatdouble as defining moments in Scripture. I'll also share stories ofordinary people who are making an extraordinary difference withtheir lives. They will inspire you to risk more, sacrifice more, anddream more.

The longer I follow Jesus, the more convinced I am of this simpletruth: God doesn't do what God does because of us. God does whatGod does in spite of us. All you have to do is stay out of the way.

It's that simple. It's that difficult.

Stay humble. Stay hungry.

If you aren't hungry for God, you are full of yourself. That's whyGod cannot fill you with His Spirit. But if you will empty yourself, ifyou will die to self, you'll be a different person by the time you reachthe last page of this book. As I wrote this book, I prayed that Godwould rewrite your life. It starts with giving the Author and Perfecterof your faith full editorial control. If you let go and let God take control,He'll write history, His Story, through your life.

CHAPTER 3

DRAWTHELINE

"Take up your cross daily, and follow me."Luke 9:23 NLT

In AD 44, King Herod ordered that James the Greater be thrustthrough with a sword. He was the first of the apostles to be martyred.And so the bloodbath began. Luke was hung by the neck froman olive tree in Greece. Doubting Thomas was pierced with a pinespear, tortured with red-hot plates, and burned alive in India. In AD54, the proconsul of Hierapolis had Philip tortured and crucifiedbecause his wife converted to Christianity while listening to Philippreach. Philip continued to preach while on the cross. Matthew wasstabbed in the back in Ethiopia. Bartholomew was flogged to deathin Armenia. James the Just was thrown off the southeast pinnacle ofthe temple in Jerusalem. After surviving the one-hundred-foot fall, hewas clubbed to death by a mob. Simon the Zealot was crucified by agovernor of Syria in AD 74. Judas Thaddeus was beaten to death withsticks in Mesopotamia. Matthias, who replaced Judas Iscariot, wasstoned to death and then beheaded. And Peter was crucified upsidedown at his own request. John the Beloved is the only disciple to dieof natural causes, but that's only because he survived his own execution.When a cauldron of boiling oil could not kill John, EmperorDiocletian exiled him to the island of Patmos, where he lived untilhis death in AD 95.

Every Christian living in a first-world country in the twenty-firstcentury should read Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It's a reality check thatputs our first-world problems into perspective. It redefines risk andsets the standard for sacrifice. By comparison, many of our risks seemrather tame and many of our sacrifices seem somewhat lame.

Our normal is so subnormal that normal seems radical. To thefirst-century disciples, normal and radical were synonyms. We'veturned them into antonyms.

In Luke 9:23–24, Jesus threw down the gauntlet with his disciples.He wanted to see who was in and who was out. Or more accurately,who was all in.

"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and takeup their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save theirlife will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it."

The disciples took this literally. We can at least take it figuratively.I'm not suggesting we will die physically for Christ, but we must dieto ourselves. If Jesus hung on His cross, we can certainly carry ours!And that isn't just our greatest responsibility. It's our highest privilege.

Anything less than the complete surrender of our lives to the lordshipof Jesus Christ is robbing God of the glory He demands anddeserves. It's also cheating ourselves out of the eternal reward Godhas reserved for us.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from All In by Mark Batterson. Copyright © 2013 Mark Batterson. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERVAN.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0310333059
• ISBN 13: 9780310333050
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192