A couple of phrases have recently emerged from popular marketing slogans. One is the question “ARE YOU ‘ALL IN’?” Another is the challenge “GET IN THE GAME!” Obviously the question “ARE YOU ‘ALL IN’?” indicates some are only partially involved and engaged. The challenge “GET IN THE GAME!” clearly motivates one to be more than a spectator but to get on the field and be a participator. These two phrases when used together espouse a principle that is true in any pursuit in life: a person will never be fulfilled, satisfied, and content until that person is ALL IN - IN THE GAME.

 The first and great commandment of the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 clearly expresses this principle: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thine heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy might.” Moses was clearly defining God’s expectation that people should love God with their entire being.

This principle was interestingly the focus of my very first sermon preached back in 1982, which was titled “ALL OR NOTHING” and focused on the fact God will not accept anything less than your all. As the old chorus declared: “All He wants is you, nothing else will do; not just a part, He wants all of your heart; all He wants is all of you, all He wants is you.”

The scriptures liken our spiritual journey to a walk, a race, a contest, a challenge in which we can either be victorious or be defeated. We have an adversary working overtime to steal our victory! Our enemy the devil is giving 100% to defeat the people of God: surely we should respond in kind by also giving 100% to defeat our enemy and be victorious.

Jesus expects ALL OR NOTHING from us today. He praised the widow woman who gave her all in Mark 12:41-44: “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even ALL her living.”

Apostle Paul lived by this principle: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count ALL things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of ALL things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…” (Phil 3:7-8).

President Theodore Roosevelt understood the importance of giving all and being in the game, which he eloquently illustrated in his famous speech, Citizenship In A Republic, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910, with the excerpt titled “The Man In the Arena”:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

ARE YOU ‘ALL IN’? GET IN THE GAME!