Here we are at the start of a New Year. 2014. I love the opportunity that the New Year brings. An opportunity to evaluate how things have been going and to make changes. This year I have looked over where I am going and how I plan to get there. God has challenged me to look at the attitudes I need to alter more than the actions that I need to change.There are some behaviors that I am going to modify, but the shifts that will bring the most results are the one that happen in my attitude. So that is where I aim to make a difference.
The challenge that I lay before you today is: “Are you ready to go ALL IN?”

“You are one decision away from a totally different life.”

In January we are going to journey together in our connect groups with Mark Batterson’s new series ALL IN. This is a very encouraging book and I recommend that you pick it up. On Kindle it is only $3.99.

For the next couple of weeks on Sunday I am going to be sharing extra stuff about going All In.

Let’s take a look at one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I have told used this passage before here at New Hope. But after 300 messages I think it should be ok for me to revisit a passage.
Ehud
12 Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 13 Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
Judges 3:12–14 (NIV84)

The people of God were doing evil and because of this, God gives an ungodly king power over Israel.

The changes that we need to see happen in our world start with changes needed in the people of God.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV84)
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Let me ask you to make this even more personal. What are areas in your life that you have seeded control over to an ungodly king because you were following your own ways?

You will find that the Moabite king that was in control was a fat king. I want you to get the picture here. The people of God were having to pay tribute to this fat king. He had become fat on the tribute that God’s people were paying.

Let me ask you what are the controlling kings in your life? One of the ways to gain control back is to recognize that they have been put in power by your tribute.

“I pay tribute to an ungodly king when I allow them to control my thought life.”

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV84)
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

First we need to demolish strong arguments and pretensions. Other translations use the phrase casting down strong imaginations. We can let our imagination get away from us. Sometimes there are things that are truly against us and at other times there are things that we have imagined to be much bigger than they are in fact. We pay “tribute” to these thoughts when we harbor them and meditate on them rather than recognizing it’s source and demolishing it.

Then we need to take the thought captive. This means we control the thought and put it in its place. You to this by recognizing the source of the thought. For example at a low time I was battling the thought that I just wanted to disappear. This thought was so strong that I actually googled the question of how to disappear. Just for the record usually if you try to disappear, you break the law, not to mention really hurt people that care for you. To kill this fat king, I had to identify this thought was not from God. It was a selfish faithless thought.

Then you need to replace the thought with the truth. After the dentist drills the cavity, the tooth is filled. It was one thing for the Berlin Wall to fall, quite another to help those who lived on the other side of it.

Two things replace the stronghold:
1. We take captive every thought: sinful thinking, imaginary conversations, etc., so that strongholds won’t creep back in.
a. We have been given authorization to make prisoners of war the very thoughts that rebel against the will of God.
b. Paul does not mean he can ‘out-debate his opponents and drive them shamefaced from the stage’ (D. A. Carson).
c. It means to reject thoughts Satan puts there:
(1) Accusations of the devil.
(2) Temptations of the flesh.
(3) Feelings of self-pity.
(4) The attempt to take vengeance into your own hands.
2. We make every thought obedient to Christ.
a. Instead of making God conform to my wish, I acquiesce to what he wants—no matter how much it hurts.
(1) It means climbing down from what I wanted.
(2) It means affirming what he wants.
b. This may mean:
(1) Showing a submissive spirit to leadership (or to your husband).
(2) Showing unselfish love for those near you (or to your wife).
c. Obedience means that Christ gave a word that was to be obeyed. There are no exceptions: ‘Every thought.’

So the people of God cried out for there to be a change. They were tired of paying tribute to a fat king.

Judges 3:15–17 (NIV84)
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. 16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man.

Take note Ehud was left handed. Left handed people do things differently. Have you ever seen a left handed person turn their entire paper so they could write normally? Throughout history left handers have been viewed as sinister or a sorcerers. They are more creative, they tend to have some advantage in sports, the view space differently, we often elect left handers i.e. President Obama and HW Bush, life expectancy is almost 9 years less.

As a result of being left handed Ehud strapped a double edged knife to his thigh. Keep in mind it was probably hidden because it was carried differently.

Ehud took the tribute to King Eglon and dismissed his companions and asked for a special audience with the king, because he had a word from God for Eglon. The king was all too eager to hear this word from God so he invited him into his chambers. Ehud locked came close pulled out the dagger and plunged it unto Eglon’s gut. The fat king’s belly formed around the dagger as he fell over dead.
Ehud escaped locking the door behind himself. He left to rally the troops that would follow. Meanwhile Eglon’s attendants knocked on the door, but there was no answer. They waited to the point of embarrassment, thinking the king might be in the inner chamber (the bath room). Finally they broke through the door to find the king dead. Ehud returned to defeat the moabites and throw off their dominance over his people. They had peace for 80 years.

GIVE YOUR UNIQUENESS TO GOD

As you go ALL IN remember God has made you unique. You may be “left-handed.” And perhaps this difference has made you feel like the odd man out. But God uses the unique way he made you when you turn it back over to him. Ehud’s “left handiness” was the trait that proved critical in bringing down the fat king.


Let the word of God be formed unique in your hand.

I want you to encourage you to go ALL IN when it comes to the the Word of God. Hide it in your heart.

Psalm 119:11 (NLT)
11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

The Word of God never changes, but is always relevant. It is active and forms to your hand. It has application with whatever king you face.

Hebrews 4:12 (NLT)
12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Going All In
Identify your FAT KING.
Choose to bring down the FAT KING.
Apply the Word of God.
Rally the troops .
Live in Peace