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“All in in 2010” is a phrase being used around Fellowship lately to challenge us at the beginning of a new year and a new decade.  We’ve been thinking and talking a lot about what this means for our leadership and our people.  And I’ve been thinking about what it means for me personally.  Some themes and commitments are starting to emerge.  If you’ll allow me, I’d like to share some of what I sense is trying to happen in our midst and in me.  Hopefully, it will give you insights and examples that prompt you to consider what it means for us and for you to be “all in in 2010."

“Wake Up Tommy”

In the movie Brave Heart, at various times when he was asleep and about to be visited upon by some grave danger, William Wallace would be dreaming of his murdered wife.  At the right moment in the dream, she would say, “Wake up, William, wake up!”  Her wake-up call would rouse him out of his sleep just in time to avoid the danger.  The Holy Spirit has brought such images to my mind of late along with scriptural wake-up calls about the urgency of the times.  Take a look at the following.  “Wake up,” “change your life" (i.e., repent), “get out” (of spiritual laziness and a worldly, worthless way of thinking and living), “recommit” (to life in Christ), and “don’t quit”.

• Ephesians 5:13-15. Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see…. Wake up from your sleep, climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light! So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!
• Romans 11:13-14. But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
• Acts 2:14, 38-42. That's when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency…"Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…. He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, "Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!"  That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.
• Matthew 10:21-23. When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don't quit. Don't cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you've run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived.
• Matthew 4:17. Change your life.  God's kingdom is here.

All of these passages are from “The Message” translation and the emphases are mine.  By God's grace and power, I will answer these wake-up calls in 2010.  They couldn't be more clear nor more timely.

“On Your Knees Boy”

A line from a U2 song called Mysterious Ways says, "If you want to kiss the sky, you better learn how to kneel - on your knees boy!"  This too has come to mind lately as a reminder that if I want to taste more of God and experience more of the reality of his presence and his kingdom, prayer is the medium.  In multiple conversations and from various sources I’m hearing a common call to a greater emphasis on prayer.  But, all are wisely saying they first want to let prayer gain greater priority in their own hearts and lives before they expect others to.  They want to walk it before they talk it.  Though I have no idea what all it might look like nor what all it might lead to, I think a prayer movement is in store for Fellowship in 2010.  That thought thrills me but also challenges me in my own prayer life, a challenge I need and, by God’s grace and power, I commit to heed this year.

“Model the Way”

Those three words came through loud and clear to the leadership of Fellowship Dallas in the results of the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey we took in October.  (We’ve started to process the results and let them impact us on many levels.  For more on this, see the January 3 “Survey Says” message and notes.)  As I let that soak into my soul, it is challenging me to more fully own the responsibility I have to be a better example to others as I go about my spiritual living and growing and my relationship with God.  I want to be a better spiritual leader for Fellowship than I am an organizational leader.  I’m starting by accepting the challenge from Gary to grow spiritually by following a simple but essential recipe for growth in general.  Like physical growth, it requires eating right and getting enough exercise and rest.  For spiritual growth, which at its core means growing in our love for God and our love for whom and what God loves, I need to…

• Feed more on the truth of God’s word revealed in the Bible and let that transform me and the way I see and act in this world.
• Strengthen my spiritual muscles through tried and true spiritual practices and disciplines like prayer, solitude and silence, acts of kindness and service, and abstinence from what I know wages war against my soul.
• Rest regularly in God so I stay alert, prepared, surrendered, and at peace amidst the busyness, trials and tribulations of life, and so I don't lose sight of the fact that any real strength or power I may have comes not from my own efforts but from God.

The tanglible expressions of these for me are to:

• Faithfully participate in Join The Journey this year as we study Acts and the New Testament letters.
• Start a small group in my home.
• Recommit to daily time in prayer and the scriptures and to a weekly day of rest with God.
• Make myself available to serve at Conrad High School, the school that our church has "adopted" in Vickery Meadow.

As important as it is for me to do these things, it is equally important for me to maintain a right attitude and perspective about why I do them.  The reason I want to grow spiritually by engaging in these things is not so I can check off another to do list and feel good about what I've accomplished.  It's because I want more in my relationship with God—more of him and more of his fruit in my life—and because I want to more fully live a kingdom-minded existence.  The reason Jesus says to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and to love my neighbor as myself is because he knows that is what will ultimately bring fulfillment to my life.  I was made to give and receive love; I'm made in my Father's image and he is the ultimate lover.  And the reason Jesus wants me to repent (i.e., to change my life) is because the kingdom of God is at hand and he wants me to be fully engaged with it—letting it take root in my heart and life and working with him to make it more and more the reality that it ultimately will fully be.  I am excited about the new series that we began today called "Captivated".  It's all about the King and his Kingdom.  I hope you will join us for it.  Today is January 10, 2010.  I can't think of a better time than 1/10/2010 to decide to be all in for what God wants to do in and through me and our church this year.  As I write this, I am making that decision.  I invite you to make the same decision for yourself.  I know we won't regret it and we will marvel at what God does.