The title of the message today is All In. All In. Back on Resurrection Sunday, we reviewed just some of the mountain of evidence revealing the literal bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I asked you three questions on that day, the first of which was, do you believe it? Do you really believe in the literal bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave? This question was simply an intellectual one. The facts and the evidence pretty much determine the answer to the first question. The evidence is overwhelming. It is an indisputable historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead. It really is. The second question is about a choice you must make. You know that Jesus is real. You know that the grave could not hold him. You know you need him. Is that true? But do you want Him in your life? That's a choice. This is a question that, unacted upon, will find the Lord going right on without you. I know that's a harsh statement. But He really doesn't need us, you see. He loves us. He wants us. But it is we who need him. The third question really only applies to those who answered the second question with a genuine, from the heart, yes. Yes, I want the Lord in my life. The third question is, will you allow the Lord to open your understanding? Will you allow the Lord to open your understanding? The process of the Lord opening the understanding of someone who is ready and desiring to learn of Him is an amazing process. It is. For many of you, I have sat across the table and watched the Lord peel back the layers of blindness as one truth after another after another becomes a part of you. To watch you, once you understand, once the Lord has opened that understanding, to watch you place your trust completely in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, depending on what you're now sure about that you were not sure about before. Oh, but it gets even better than that. As the Lord continues to open your understanding, you are led by the Spirit of God to be baptized in water and become a part of the church. And then, as a part of the church, the more you grow and the more the Lord continues to open your understanding, and the more you learn, the more you realize the size and the magnitude of who you really are and what you really have in Jesus Christ. Yes, I do have the best job in the world. I really do. There is no more rewarding job on this planet than the one that I get to hold. Today's message consists of one question, and it goes out to you who are saved, who know you're saved, who know you're going to heaven, and perhaps now are either there or very close to understanding the magnitude of who you really are and what you really do possess in Jesus Christ. Today's question is, are you all in? I want to read to you a Facebook post written by a young man who got saved right here in this church, sitting right over there in that second row. He's presently off at Bible college right now, preparing himself to become a pastor. Who knows, maybe someday you're a pastor. He'll be back here with us in another couple of weeks. He'll be our intern for the summer. And we're very much looking forward to getting him back here at home where we'd love to have him. Here's his post that he put on Facebook. April 16, today thankful for the life I have in Jesus Christ that I did not deserve. For the one who saved my life, I won't apologize. The same one who lived the life that no one else could. the same one who was beaten, broken, bruised, spit at, mocked, despised and rejected, humiliated, and then nailed through his wrists and his feet to a cross for the sins of the world. The wrath of God was satisfied through Jesus Christ. The word is propitiation, 1 John 2 verse 2. Jesus' sacrifice wasn't forced upon him. He willingly took it, not because we deserve it, but because of his unconditional love. If that doesn't motivate someone to be all in for the gospel, I don't know what will. But death could not hold him. Three days and three nights later, he rose from the dead, proving that he was more powerful than sin and death itself, proving he is the one true God. Now, where is death's sting? Our Savior is risen and alive today. Those who will repent, Greek word, metanoia, change their mind that leads to a change of accent, stop trusting in what you were trusting in before, and put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. We'll have everlasting life and be saved from the penalty of sin, hell. We need always to remember our God is not dead. As for me, I am all in. Resurrection Sunday, soon. Justin gives us Four passages of scripture with that Facebook post. One is Isaiah 53, 5, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. John 1 in verse 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Verse 14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And then finally, 1 Corinthians 15, 55, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. As many of you know, all in is a poker term, which means you bet everything you have on the table. Now, I don't recommend poker as a wholesome Christian activity, not so much for the gambling aspect, which can't be very good for anyone, but mostly because to be good at it, you must become an efficient deceiver. And I think we all have too much exposure to that as it is. In the standard five-card poker game, there is one hand that cannot be beaten. It's called a royal flush. A royal flush is all the top cards of a single suit in order, ace, king, queen, jack, and ten. The calculated odds of drawing such a hand are approximately one in 650,000. As I got to thinking about that, This is probably about the same ratio as those who genuinely know the Lord Jesus Christ to the free pardon of sin to those in the world who do not. It's probably about just about like that. As I think about it, there's a lot of people out there that are lost. And for you to be one who is not is a really, really unusual, big, major, fantastic, wonderful, and any other good adjective you can find, thing. As many of you know, I am a fan of old westerns, although I have watched every one that's ever been made, and I'm out of new material, so, you know, it's all reruns for me. There's one of the old TV shows, which are my favorite shows, they all have a moral at the end. You know, you can't find that in entertainment today. One of those old television shows starred James Garner in a Western called Maverick. Some of you are old enough to have watched that. Not on the reruns. That makes you really old. Maverick was a gambler and spent most of his time hanging out in saloons, which simply proves that every modern generation has had its bad television. When I was a small boy, there were not many toys or frills in my life. Most of my toys we made or found laying in the woods somewhere. One Christmas, my oldest sister, Owena, who had gotten married and left home before I was born, being the youngest of 12, that's not at all unusual. I have several nieces and nephews that are substantially older than me. I'm not my own grandpa, though, just in case you're wondering. Awinda got married and she moved off to Indiana, and she would send a package home on Christmas. And one Christmas, when I was a small boy, she sent me a double holster set of Maverick cap guns. I'm about to be 64, and I have never forgotten those Maverick cap guns. That was one of the highlights of my childhood. Now, Maverick was a careful gambler. He always kept a, and whether they, you know, they even made them or not back in those days or not, it said he always kept a $1,000 bill pinned inside his coat just in case, just in case. There's an old saying that most of you know that says in life, you must simply play the hand you are dealt. You heard that saying? Don't be lying in church, you heard that saying? Now if that be true, let me describe to you the hand that those of you who are truly born again have been dealt by the Lord Jesus. If you are truly born again, and I say if because obviously most are not, here is basically what you have. You have three stacks of chips on the table, and you have one of those large bills inside your coat. You take a look, and you can hardly believe your eyes. You have been dealt a royal flush. You've been dealt a hand that cannot be beaten. It cannot be matched. The odds are too astronomical. I don't think there's ever been two dealt and a hand in the history of the world. So what are you going to do? Are you just going to sit there and count your chips like you've been doing up to now? Or are you going to go all in? What's it going to be? What does it mean if we parallel this to the real Christian life that we live, what does it mean to really go all in? Well, one of those stacks of chips could be labeled time. To go all in with your time. Time is one of those things, at least one of the elements that life is made of. Can you agree with me on that? Your present life is that space of time from when you were born until you die. I have a line that I've put up on the screen for you, which is age zero up to now, and then a line going out to death. And this line illustrates your life. If you're saved, there is a time somewhere between childhood and now, and you'll see that on the screen when my helpers catch up back there. There we go. That you understood the gospel and you placed your trust in Jesus. to save you from your sins. Now, let me point out that if you do not have a time somewhere between your childhood and now that you understood the gospel and you did place your trust in Jesus to save you, that means that you're not saved. That means that you're still headed to a devil's hell and you really need to do something about it. No one has always been a Christian. Anyone born again has to have a birthday to go with the new birth. Well, if you are saved, there's a time between there that you can see on the line where you trusted Jesus to save you. Being all in with our time means that we serve the Lord 24-7, not just for an hour or two on Sunday. 1 Corinthians 10, 31 says, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Ephesians 5 and verse 15 says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. All in means that from the time you wake in the morning until the time that you pass out from exhaustion at night, It means that the will of God takes precedence over your schedule and every activity in it. That's what it means to be all in with your time. From the time you got saved until now, I want to ask you this question. There's a spot on the line up there for you to see that time. Would you say that you have been all in for Jesus with your time since you got saved till now? How have you been doing with that? Would you say that you have been all in with your time up till now or not? It's pretty quiet in here, so I think we pretty much all know the answer, don't we? Well, I have a more important question. Are you going to go all in with what you've got left? Or are you just still going to sit there and count your chips like you've been doing? What are you going to do with the time you have left? What are you going to do with the rest? You said you gave your life to Jesus. You did say that, right? Will you admit you said that? I want to clarify that. First of all, no one can give their life to Jesus until after they're saved. For when we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Remember? When you got saved, Jesus gave life to you, not the other way around. Are we on the same page here? John 10 and verse 10, Jesus said, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. But now, now that you have placed your faith in Jesus, Now that your spirit which was dead in sins is alive, now you have a choice that you did not have before. Now you have a life to give. And time being the stuff that life is made of, remember agreeing to that a while ago? It's true. What are you going to do with the time that you have left? What are you going to do with it? Another element of your life is your talent. Are you all in with your talents? We're going to call that our second stack of chips here today. All in with your talent. You see, you were created for Jesus, not for the world. Let me read it to you. Colossians 1.16, For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things. were created by him and for him. And he is before, he precedes all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19, Paul says, what? Big question mark. I can just hear the question that he's responding to. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price. That price was the precious blood of Jesus, ladies and gentlemen. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Chapter 7, verse 23, you are bought with a price. Be not ye the servants of men. What does it mean to be all in with our time? What does it mean to be all in with our talent? Here are some scriptures that apply. The first one's on the board, on the wall up here. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. That scripture applies. Ephesians 2.19. You are therefore no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple, in the Lord, in whom you also are built in, built together, it says, for a habitation, that means a dwelling place of God through the Spirit. We members of this church are built together to make a dwelling place for God in Dickinson, Texas. It's a pretty important project that we're involved in here. Galatians chapter 5 verse 13, For you, brethren, have been called unto liberty. Only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Not the world. 1 Corinthians 4, 7, For who maketh thee to differ from another? You see, our talents are all given to us from the Lord. And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? Do you have anything that you did not receive? Do you have any ability or any gift or any talent or any particular skill that you did not receive? That's what I thought. Where did you get it from? James 117, every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God did not give you your talents to serve or to entertain the world. He gave you your talents to be used for him. He gave us our talents to be used for him. James gets pretty strong in this. Chapter 4, verse 4, he says, You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. We're to be all in with our talents and our abilities. And not only that, you know the one that's coming next, we're to be all in with our treasure. Another element of your life is what you have. That third stack of chips is your finances. Are you all in today with your treasure? Are you? Some of you are thinking, I don't have anything, any treasure, so it's easy to be all in. We'll find out about that here in a little bit. Many Christians are not only not all in with their treasure, they are robbing God of the tithe that is not theirs to keep in the first place. You're going to notice that there are now cameras up throughout the building. There's one out there in the foyer, got some more in the back, there's a couple more getting ready to go up later this week. That is because we've had some break-ins. And another attempted break-in just this week, I think someone wanted to steal the auction money that we raised. Wasn't a lot of it, but we wouldn't have liked to have lost it. Someone's regularly been taking things from the building that does not belong to them. You're probably thinking, how low can you get stealing from a church? You are thinking that, aren't you? Well, I expect God's opinion of that is pretty much like yours. Let me read to you God's opinion of it. You ready? Will a man rob God? It's a question mark. It's an absurdity. It's an unthinkable absurdity, right? Yet you have robbed me, God says. But you say, well, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You see, it's not just the tithe that belongs to God, is it? It's all His. Every bit of it. He bought you and He owns you. You're His. That makes everything you have His as well, does it not? Does that mean I'm supposed to bring everything that I make to the church? No. It doesn't mean that. It means that after I first bring God His tithe and my offerings, which I bring to God to honor Him with, because he doesn't need my money. It's for honor, not for necessity. It means that after I do that, that he has a list of specific good things that I am to do with the remaining 70 or 80 so percent, whatever may be left. And I don't have the time to read you all that big list today. Tim's going to take care of that in a week or two. Let me read you a story this morning. Everybody likes a good story. Everybody likes miraculous, cool stuff that Jesus did, right? Y'all like a good story? Here's a good story. Luke 9, verse 12. And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve and said unto him, that's Jesus, send the multitude away that they may go into the towns and country round about and lodge and get victuals. And the country, that's vittles. And it means food, right? Y'all got that? For we are here in a desert or in an isolated place. But he, Jesus, said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, I can just see them looking at each other, Lord, it doesn't say that here, but they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes. Except we should go and buy meat for all this people, for there were about five thousand men, And he said to his disciples, make them all sit down by fifties in a company. So we've got a hundred little companies. And if you've ever been or seen the hillsides where this preaching was taking place, I can picture it. And it could easily be easily worked out just right. So you got 150 groups of a hundred here. I mean 100 groups of 50. Let me get that right. I don't want to be unscriptural here. And they did so and made them all to sit down. Then he, Jesus, he took the five loaves and the two fishes. And looking up to heaven, he blessed them and broke. Now they had some baskets there. They had at least 12. And he gave to the disciples to sit before the multitude. And they did It says, and he gave, he blessed them and broke and he gave to the disciples to set before the multitude and they did eat and were all filled. And there was taken up of fragments, leftover pieces that remained to them 12 baskets. When they came back with the baskets after everyone had finished, the baskets were still full of food. How many of you believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. How many of you believe this account that I just read to you from the scriptures, that Jesus fed 5,000 with those five loaves and two little fishes? You mean to tell me that you really believe this, that you're not willing to faithfully give and thereby turn the handling of the rest of whatever you get over to Jesus The same one who with two loaves and five fishes he made it go far enough, excuse me, he made it go more than far enough to feed 5,000 men, not counting the women and kids that all got to eat, with 12 baskets full left over. You tell me you believe this, but you're not willing to turn your finances over to God to handle the way He says to do it? That doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Let me ask you one more time. Do you believe this account of the loaves and the fishes? I have seen what Jesus does with what I have left after I bring His tithes and our offerings to the Lord. I've been watching Him do this for a long time now. And I'm here to tell you, what He does with what's left over is nothing short of amazing. You say, you mean it's like the loaves and the fishes? Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's just that miraculous. Sometimes it is. It's always good. But sometimes God just likes to show off. He just really does sometimes. What about Maverick? You know, like him, that just-in-case reserve that you got pinned inside your coat, remember? You've got three stacks of chips on the table plus that big old reserve that's inside your coat. Well, in your case, that would be your heart that's held in reserve. Let me read to you Mark 12 and verse 30. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. That's what comes first. and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and with all thy time, and with all thy talent, and with all thy treasure." They could have said that, couldn't they? It would not have been unscriptural if it had. This is the first commandment. This is the first commandment. 2 Chronicles 16.9, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart, whose heart is perfect toward him. You will never be all in until first God has your heart. It's never going to be until first God has your heart. That being true, You agree? That being true, there can only be one reason that you're not all in. There can only be one reason. And that reason is a very serious, sobering confrontation from the Holy Spirit this morning. You said, you said you gave your heart to Jesus. Did you say that or not? That's what you said. So when did you take it back? Do you want to know where your heart is this morning? The Bible tells us how to know. If you want to see where your heart is, Jesus said, look in your checkbook. Does the Bible really say that? Kind of, yeah. Let me read it. Matthew 6, 21, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Yeah, he did say that, didn't he? Look where your treasure is. That's where you're going to find your heart. I know you probably think that someone like Justin Curtis is not the normal Christian. You probably think that he's very rare and he's unusual. After all, there are lots of Christians like the rest of us who are not really all in like he is. Okay? Perhaps that's true, however, you're not thinking straight. You need to look at this from a perspective, you don't even have to look at it from God's perspective, okay? You can look at this from a perspective of just plain old reality, alright? Would a normal person, would a normal person hold a royal flush, knowing what it is, and not go all in? Would a normal person, I know you don't play cards, but pretend with me a minute, okay? I don't play poker either. But would a normal person hold a royal flush and not go all in? What's the answer? No. I'm saying to you that Justin is the normal one. And you need to be normal. You need to be normal. Not average. Didn't say average. Normal. No normal person would have what we have, knowing what we have. I'm playing the hand I've been dealt. And I'm going all in. Because the hand I've been dealt is a royal flush. My dealer is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And he's given me a hand that cannot be beaten, it cannot be matched. Nothing can touch it. And I would be a fool. We read a verse that spoke that, by the way. I would be a fool not to go all in. Let's stand together. The question of the day It's the same one we started with. Are you all in? Or are you just sitting there counting your chips, hanging on to the world? Jesus is coming. I could ask you if you believe this, and I'm pretty sure every hand goes up. Do you believe that Jesus is coming? He's coming. Do you believe it's soon? How soon, I don't know, but I know I'm going to see the Lord soon either way. Some of you think, I just can't do it. I can't go all in. I know. I know that Satan puts a roadblock in front of you every time you try. I know that. God knows that. But God says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Maybe you need to do some resisting so you can be all in. I know that every time you try that your flesh, oh, that worst enemy of all, gets in the way. Oh, your flesh wants what it wants. The lust of the mind, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, it's all there. But God's made a way for you to get up every day with a new start. Every time you fall, He says, if you'll confess your sins, I will forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You don't have to go five minutes out of fellowship with God. You can be all in. Paul said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. You've got to realize that it's a fight, and you're never going to be out of the fight. You don't give up and just walk away whipped and get beat. You keep fighting the fight. Fight the good fight of faith, the Bible says. Did you put your trust in Jesus to save you or not? If you did, you have an unbeatable hand. You're one in at least more than 650,000, probably one in a million or more. And if you understand what you have, well, What would God do with a church full of normal Christians? Now that you understand what normal is. Amen? No normal person would sit there and not be all in holding the hand that you've been dealt. And you know that. God has made it very clear to us today. So the question is, are you going all in? Or are you just going to stand there? It's been a long time since God's people did some repenting. There needs to be some taking place. The devil's been kicking you around pretty good over it. It's time to stand up and say, Lord, I've had enough of him. I'm ready to be all in for Jesus. One thing to say it, one thing to sing it. It's another to step up and do it as we sing. You come. Get this right with God.