Go All In

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/being_brave-all_in.mp3[/podcast]

I want to wrap up this series today by preaching a message titled “Go All In.” I’m going to be honest with you, this message, when it came to me, God was speaking directly to me. He was preaching this message to me because I had been feeling like I’m too tired to “Go All In.” I’ve been feeling old. I’ve been feeling like things around me aren’t going as fast as they should. I’ve been feeling like my 110% amounts to nothing more than another person’s 30%, and I was too exhausted. Then I read this passage: 2 Kings 13:14-25.

¹⁴ Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” ¹⁵ Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. ¹⁶ “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. ¹⁷ “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.” ¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” ²⁰ Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. ²¹ Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. ²² Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. ²³ But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. ²⁴ Hazael king of Aram died, and Ben-Hadad his son succeeded him as king. ²⁵ Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered the Israelite towns.

I want to ask this question: What kind of reliance do you have on God? The reason I’m asking this question is because I think the answer to this question will determine how brave you can be and are willing to be. I think the more I think about my actions and my lifestyle and the things I do and accomplish in my life, I want to say that I don’t have the type of reliance on God that I should have. The reason I say that is because if I did have the type of reliance on God, I know I’m capable of, then I think I would have done more things that were brave in the name of God. But my lack of bravery in the name of God tells me that I don’t have the type of reliance that I should. I’m sure many of you can relate to that and know what I’m talking about. Like, if we had just a little more reliance on God, then we would have applied to that extremely hard school that we had slim chances in being accepted into. If we had a little more reliant on God, we would have been brave enough to invite our close, non-Christian friend who’s angry at God to church. If we had been a little more reliant on God, then we would have changed careers or jobs, and moved to a different part of the country and done something. Maybe if we had a little more reliance on God we would have opened that business that God put in our hearts to open way back when. This story is interesting here because when Jehoash came to see the dying prophet he addresses him as “father.” But that’s not the interesting part. That’s the respect part because to the king of Israel, the prophet Elisha had been like a father and probably spent some time giving the king advice and mentoring him on the things of God. The interesting part is the second sentence, “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” This second sentence tells me how reliant Jehoash was on Elisha. I know Elisha is not God, but the Spirit of God rested upon Elisha and what Jehoash saw was that the king relied on Elisha for the safety and wellbeing of his army! Remember that story I was telling you a few weeks ago where Elisha would tell the king of Israel what the enemy was plotting and so Israel never lost. Jehoash had the type of reliance on Elisha that we need to have in God. The type of reliance where if God tells us one thing, we go and do it.

To be brave, we need to rely on God like our bravery depended on it. I’m telling you this because it does. Bravery is dependent on our reliance to God. Check out verses 15 and 16 again. ¹⁵ Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. ¹⁶ “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.  God’s hands are on us when we follow His instructions. You don’t think the king of Israel didn’t know how to shoot a bow and arrow, do you? Of course he does. He’s the king and he goes to war every spring time. This is so beautiful. The king shoots when Elisha says shoot. He shoots even though he didn’t have to. He shoots out of obedience. When was the last time you did something because God told you to do it? If you say pray for my food yesterday, I’m going to laugh. I think a lot of us, myself included, have a serious problem with obedience. We don’t obey God. Moreover, we don’t follow instructions. We think we’re some type of pioneer or some type of cowboy, blazing our own trail. But God really just wants us to follow His instructions. He gives us instructions to do and be something because he knows we know how to do it. But more than that, He wants to lay His hands on us while we do it.

Now this is where it gets interesting, let’s go to verse 18. ¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” This is the lesson on bravery: When God tells you to do something, don’t hold anything back.

I’’m sure the king had a whole quiver of arrows with him. That’s 6 arrows for those of you who don’t know. The king took one arrow and shot it out of the window. So that’s five arrows left. You know, that’s assuming that he had a full quiver. Then the king took three more arrows and struck the ground with the arrows. That leaves two arrows left. Why in the world would the king save arrows? Elisha was mad! He was furious. You know, I have to tell you that sometimes this is exactly what we do. The reason we do this is because we think we’re so smart. We think we’re being prudent, like saving arrows for later is necessary because we’re waiting to fail the first time. Elisha was mad because the king had a quiver full of arrows and he doesn’’t use them all. He goes at it about half strength or at 60% strength. Elisha was mad because there were two arrows left and the king could have done better.

Do you ever think about the times in your life when you could have gone all in with God, but didn’’t. The reason you didn’’t go all in was because you didn’’t quite believe you could rely on God, so you held back a little bit, just in case. And of course, when you did this, your suspicions were confirmed. Could you imagine if Jesus did this? What if Jesus held back instead of going all in? Do you think we would have been saved? What if the disciples didn’’t go all in? Do you think the gospel news and message would have reached us? Do you think if Martin Luther King Jr didn’’t go all in, we would have a building to worship in or even if we would have the right to go to school and vote? Do you think you can really be brave if you’re not willing to go all in?

I want to encourage you today that these net few weeks, we go all in, together and do something amazing. That we stand with each other and pray. That when we come to the lock in on 2/20 we can bravely ask God for change in the world delivered through our hands as He lays His hands on us.

I want to leave you with this verse from Ecclesiastes 9:10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might….

Let’s pray.