The term “All In” has been coming up a lot over the Easter season. We have the example of Jesus being “All in” for us. We are asking our congregations to figure out what being “All in” for Jesus means to them. I thought it would be a good idea for the ministers of the Vicarage to sound off with their definitions of the term “All in”. Maybe it will spark some interesting conversation with our on-line community.

Amanda spoke our prayer devotional for early morning prayer this week at Cornerstone. She told me then that I should listen because in it were her thoughts concerning being “All In”.

She took the devotional from the story of Joseph in Genesis 37:1-11

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

² This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate^[a] robe for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹ Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Being “All In” means not being like Joseph’s brothers. God had given Joseph a dream that he would be given authority over his brothers. Joseph was being elevated by God. Joseph’s brothers did not take that very well. If you remember the story they beat Joseph and sold him into slavery after debating whether or not they should kill him.

Two things exemplified in this story keep us from being “All In”. The first thing is, not being willing to accept God’s plan. How often does God make His plan plain to us and still we reject it? Rejecting God’s plan is most definitely an “All In” killer.

The second thing that kills the “All In” mindset is not being willing to submit to God’s rightly delegated authority. Joseph was being put into authority. His brothers would have none of that especially coming from a younger brother. How often do we buck against someone God has placed in authority because we do not like them or we think we could do a better job.

Our liking or not liking someone in authority must never dictate our submission to that authority or the carrying out of God’s plan. Our feeling like we could do a better job is not a license to pull out of a plan God has put us in the middle of. As John Bevere says in his book “Under Cover”, “There is no submission until there is disagreement.”

Being “All In” requires us to submit to God’s plan and God’s rightly delegated authority regardless of whether we like it or even agree with it.