All In

This is church! A group of believers that worship the Lord, that stand on His Word, and is led of His Spirit! This uncommon community shares an uncommon identity that is unlike anything of this world.

As 1 Corinthians 12:27 says...

1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

We need to understand something very important regarding this declaration: NOTHING ELSE HAS BEEN GIVEN THIS IDENTITY. NOTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD SHARES THIS IDENTITY. It is through the church… through the body of Christ… that this world will be reconciled to God.

Those that make up this body are believers in Christ… who are ambassadors for Christ. We represent His love, His truth, His compassion… WE ARE THE EXTENSION OF HIS MINISTRY UNTIL HE RETURNS.

And this next year… God desires for His church… for this church… to go ALL IN. To be wholly surrendered… to give all for the cause of His Kingdom. IF we desire to see God do amazing things in 2024… then we must can’t stop at giving 70% or 85%… each part of the body must be willing to give ALL for Jesus.

So far our series has talked about becoming a stronger and growing body. We have focused in on building blocks that will help us become a stronger and growing body.

One, we must be a praying body. Prayer moves us beyond ourselves. It helps us become more dependent on God.

Two, we must be a missional body. Mission moves us beyond personal agenda and aligns us more to God’s plan and purpose.

Three, we must be a serving body. Serving moves us beyond our wants and needs and helps us to become more like Christ.

Four, we must be a giving body. Giving moves us beyond our greed and helps us to be more generous with the resources God has blessed us with.

EACH ONE OF THESE POINTS CAUSES A SHIFT IN OUR LIVES. LESS OF US… MORE OF GOD.

As we believe for God to do incredible things in 2024… it will require just that… less of us, more of God!

And listen, church… God wants MORE for us… for you today! God desires for you to experience the best He has to offer! Consider this:

Why did Jesus come to this earth? Well, He answers that question in John 10:10

John 10:10 NKJV

10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Jesus came that we might have life… MORE abundantly!

When we give our lives to Christ, we are moved from a place of death and defeat into a place of life and victory!

Romans 8:35–37 NIV

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

As we live daily for Christ, we know that God desires and is able to do the impossible in us and through us!

Ephesians 3:20–21 NIV

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

In Christ, we receive MORE THAN we could ever possibly ask for! But there is a catch… there is a condition. If we want more… we must give… ALL. If we hold back… we settle for less.

The problem is many believers today want all that God has to offer… without giving themselves completely over to Him. And many times these same believers become complacent and confused at why they are seemingly receiving less from the Lord.

If you feel like you are in a less than pattern instead of a more than spiritual reality… I want you to stop and consider your level of commitment in the areas we’ve studied in this series.

How committed are you to prayer… to God’s mission… to serving… and to giving?

The real question is… how committed are you… to Jesus? Jesus laid out the level of commitment He requires of His disciples. We find that disclosed in Luke 9:23-24.

Luke 9:23–24 NIV

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

This is not the first time we’ve seen this verse in this series… but today it serves as our main verse. Why? Because Jesus plainly declares that if you want to be His disciple… you must be all in.

Verse 24 is significant. It speaks of giving our whole life to Christ. It means our priority is Jesus… not personal happiness, gain, or pleasure. It means a disciple is willing to lay it all down for Jesus.

AND… did you know that statement appears in all four gospels? In fact, two of the gospels contain it more than once! My point? NO OTHER STATEMENT FROM JESUS RECEIVED AS MUCH ATTENTION BY THE GOSPEL WRITERS. What does that mean? IT MEANS IT IS SUPER IMPORTANT. It means it is a truth we cannot miss. It means JESUS WANTS US TO GET THIS!

Bottom line is: Receiving more… means giving all. If we want all God has to give, then we must give God all He expects.

And as we, the church, give all to Jesus, we can expect God to do more than we ever dreamed.

How many desire to see more people come to know Jesus? How many desire to see more people healed miraculously? How many desire to see more of God’s Spirit poured out on the heartland? How many desire to see more communities come alive in Christ? How many desire to see the hope, love, and grace of Christ make a come back in our culture?

I truly believe we will see more in every one of these areas… as the church gives more to God. In giving more… in giving all to God… I believe we are going to see God move in three specific ways this next year.

One: God is Going to BUILD His Church.

To be clear… God is building His church and I am thankful for what He has done. But as the church becomes more committed, I truly believe it will set the stage for God to build us up more and to strengthen our faith.

I believe… God wants to take us deeper. God wants to draw us closer to Him. God wants to do a work within each one of like no other time before.

In order to see this happen… we will have to be more committed than we ever have been… committed in a very specific way.

Jesus speaks of this commitment in Matthew 22. A Pharisee who was an expert in the law… asked Jesus a question regarding the law. He asked Jesus which is the greatest of all the commands? And Jesus gave Him a simple yet profound answer.

Matthew 22:37–38 NIV

37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

I want you to look at this passage closely. Jesus leaves no room for guessing. We are to love the Lord with ALL our heart, ALL our soul, and ALL our mind.

This is what going deeper with God looks like. Simply going through the motions won’t cut it. Attending church a couple of times a month won’t cut it. Serving and giving when it’s convenient won’t cut it. We either love the Lord with all that we are… or we don’t

Here’s the deal: choosing to love God with all that we are gives Him access… to all who we are. It means we are not withholding any area of our heart and lives from Him. AND WHEN WE GIVE GOD FULL ACCESS, HE IS ABLE TO BUILD US UP.

It gives God access to build up our heart.

What does that mean? Your heart is your emotional self. It’s your passions, your desires, etc. To love Him with all your heart means that He is the source and object of your greatest desires and passions… He becomes the core of your affection.

God wants to build up and strengthen your emotional self… He desires for His peace to reign in your heart… AT ALL TIMES. Our emotions can often be misleading. We can sometimes be tempted to trust what we feel over our faith. But giving God access by loving Him with ALL our heart enables His Spirit to help guide and direct our passions and feelings.

It gives God access to build up our soul.

This is your spiritual self… your inner most being. This is who you are… not the mask you sometimes wear. The soul could be described as the core of who you are - the real you - your identity. Loving God with all your soul means giving Him access to the real you. Your identity is completely one with that of Christ.

People struggle to know who they are outside of knowing Jesus. We are facing an identity crisis in this nation… and it is beginning to trickle into the church. God wants to build up and strengthen your spiritual self. He wants to make you… whole again. Only God can fully satisfy what your soul needs. Giving God access to your soul brings complete satisfaction and freedom to that which the enemy seeks to destroy.

It gives God access to build up our mind.

This is your intellectual self. This is your thoughts, your understanding, your center of reasoning and knowledge. Your mind… is potentially one of the greatest spiritual battlegrounds. The world wants to fill it with its ways. God wants to set it free with His truths.

Giving God access to our minds means flooding our minds with His truth, His understanding, and His Spirit. It means we believe and trust in what He says over what the world tells us. It means God becomes central to our reasoning process and world view.

As we, the church, love God with all that we are… it gives God access to all who we are. As He builds believers… He builds the church.

But we must be all in with our love for Him. There truly is no other way. And as Jesus said… there is no command more important.

Two: God is Going to EXPAND His Church.

As God builds the body… He is going to expand the body. As the body grows in their walk with the Lord… the body will grow in its influence in the land. Loving God is command number one… but loving people comes in at a close second.

Jesus didn’t stop His answer with one command. Look at what He says in Matthew 22:39

Matthew 22:39 NIV

39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

We need to understand that these two commands are closely intertwined. How so? A believer cannot love God with all that they are and not love others as themselves. IF love for others is absent… then we haven’t gone all in with our love for the Lord.

We cannot love God without loving others. And… we cannot love others as ourselves without loving God.

So what does loving others have to do with God expanding His church? ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!

Consider this: You are here, in this room today, because someone loved you enough to tell you about Jesus. Someone recognized your need for a Savior… and shared the love of Christ with you.

When you gave your heart to the Lord, the church… grew. The body of Christ expanded with your salvation. And I believe God wants to see this body grow in this way in 2024. And the most effective growth… will come through loving others as Christ loved us.

All-in love for others is something that is unique to God’s church. It is a characteristic we inherited from the head of the church who is Christ Jesus.

Before we gave our lives to Christ, He loved us. He didn’t wait for us to get cleaned up and to get things together… while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He looked beyond our sin… beyond our brokenness, and beyond any earthly barrier or excuse. He went all-in… by giving all He could give. HE IS OUR EXAMPLE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO LOVE OTHERS.

Jesus wants His church… to love others beyond their sin, beyond their mistakes, beyond any and all social barriers that might try to rise up. This does not mean we condone sin… it simply means we know Jesus can set them free of that sin. If we are going all in with our walk in the Lord, then we must be all in with our love for others.

Our mission statement at HWC is loving God and loving people. It comes from the greatest commandments given by Jesus. I believe… this facility was built with this mission in mind.

We have space in this room… to grow. This room can house 200 worshippers in any given worship service. This room was built… with growth in mind.

We have space in our schedule… to grow. If we exceed 200 in attendance, we can easily add another worship service at 8:30 on Sunday mornings that doubles our potential capacity. Our schedule is planned… with growth in mind.

We have space on our campus… to grow. If this require more classrooms and meeting spaces, we can create more square footage on the property we own. Our property is laid out… with growth in mind.

But a room cannot grow a church. A schedule cannot grow a church. A property cannot grow a church. ONLY THE CHURCH… CAN GROW THE CHURCH! This growth will come through loving others as ourselves.

This means telling people about Jesus.

This means living our lives in God honoring ways.

I truly believe God will add to the number daily those who are being saved… as we choose to love those who God places in our path on a daily basis. Going all in with our love for others is loving people as Christ loved us.

Three: God is Going to MOBILIZE His Church.

So far… as we have discussed going all in in 2024… we have outlined the mission of HWC: Loving God, Loving People. But what about the vision? God wants to build His church. God wants to expand His church. And I believe God wants to MOBILIZE His church.

Church mobilization means going where the lost are. Church mobilization means… taking the good news of the gospel outside these four walls and into the communities in which we live. The vision of the church is to transform the heartland through community care and discipleship. That CANNOT happen in here… and must take place out there.

AND… it will require an all-in mentality. It will require the participation of every part of the body of Christ. God… wants to mobilize YOU… in the calling He has placed on your life.

This is not possible without first committing to loving Him first and loving others. Why? Because the call will never hold without prioritizing God, first. Without this prioritization, something else will get in the way… some excuse will keep us from responding… excuses will keep us out of the mission field.

The body Jesus desires to mobilize today… is YOU. This vision is not reserved for the pastor, church staff, or church volunteers… it is a UNIVERSAL call for all believers. God has gifted you and placed you for such a time as this. Don’t believe me? Look at the words in 1 Corinthians 12:18-19

1 Corinthians 12:18–19 NIV

18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?

What’s my point? This body has been placed here… to go out there. And if one part of the body decides its function is not important… it cripples the body and hinders its ministry capability.

No one person alone can do what God designed this body… the church… to do! Jesus did not commission just one person to continue His ministry… He commissioned the church.

When it comes to mobilizing the body of Christ… all in = all hands on deck. It all believers choosing to answer the call.

Nation wide, churches are facing a shortage of people who will step up and serve according to their God-given giftings. The result of this shortage… has been devastating.

The church… is in decline in America. I see this in direct connection with the lack of volunteers. Friends listen, the fields are white… ready for harvest. And Jesus has called us to the field. Will we respond to His call or be too busy to respond?

We cannot expect a move of God if the church is unmoved by God’s calling. It’s that simple. And we risk burning out those who have said yes and are pulling double and triple ministry duty for the absence of additional workers.

So it’s time to get on our knees and seek what the Lord would have us do. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and respond according to the Lord’s direction. And it’s time to mobilize the church… to spread the message throughout the heartland.

Listen, there is no substitute for you in the body. A hand cannot be both a hand and an arm. A nose cannot be both a nose and a knee. You have something to offer the church today… a God-given something. It’s time to rise up… and to answer the call.

Closing

We cannot expect God to do more this year if we offer Him less than all. If you share in my belief that God has amazing things in store this year, I want you to stand to your feet.

Alright… we’re standing. So… what are you willing to do with that belief? What role are you willing to play to help open the doors for what God has in store?

I ask this regarding your personal walk with the Lord.

I ask this regarding your calling within the body of Christ.

Are you willing to go all in? Are you ready to move from where you are… to where God is calling you to be?

This is all in with your love for God.

This is all in with your love for others.

This is all in with our response to His call.

If that is you, move from your seat and stand in these altars.

These altars were built last year in response to the direction of the Lord.

God specifically challenged me in this way. I was praying for workers… and neglecting His instruction to rebuild the altar. He spoke very clearly to my heart saying, “How can you expect people to give of themselves, when the place of personal sacrifice has been removed?”

These altars are the response to God’s instruction. Today… God is asking for personal sacrifice. IF we want to be disciples of Christ… it will cost us.... everything. We must give Him, everything.

We must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him. And as we follow Him, we can expect life more abundantly as He makes us more than conquerors. He will do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us. WHAT MORE COULD WE POSSIBLY ASK FOR?

If we want more… we must give all. It is that simple. The altar is the place we lay down our life for the cause of Jesus. Are you willing to do that today?

Then as we sing this last song, I want you to make it your prayer. I want you to give all… to Jesus. Lay down any and all excuses… silence any and all doubt. Open yourself up to what the Spirit of God wants to say to you and… get ready for more!