Mark Batterson - All In. You Are One Decision Away from a Totally Different Life

Resources by Mark Batterson

Be a Circle Maker

The Circle Maker

The Circle Maker Video Curriculum

The Circle Maker Prayer Journal

The Circle Maker Student Edition

Draw the Circle

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

Praying Circles around Your Children

Primal

Soul Print

Wild Goose Chase

ZONDERVAN

All In Student Edition

Copyright 2014 by Mark Batterson

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition February 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-74519-8

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked CEB are taken from the Common English Bible. Copyright 2011 by Common English Bible. All rights reserved.

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Cover design: Extra Credit Projects and Cindy Davis

Interior composition: Greg Johnson/Textbook Perfect

Printed in the United States of America

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Dedicated to the church I have the joy and privilege of pastoring National Community Church, Washington, DC

CONTENTS

17. One Decision Away

A hundred years ago came a new breed of missionary: one-way missionaries. Theyd buy one-way tickets to the mission field without the idea of return. Their suitcases were actual coffins where they packed what little they owned because they knew they wouldnt be returning home. They sailed out of port waving good-bye to life as they knew it.

A. W. Milne was one of those brave missionaries. He set out for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunters who lived there had martyred every missionary before him. But Milne did not fear for his life, because he had already died to himself. His coffin was packed. He ended up living with the tribe for thirty-five years and loved every day of it. When he died, tribe members buried him in the middle of their village and inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone:

When he came there was no light.

When he left there was no darkness.

When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? That faithfulness is just holding the fort? That playing it safe is actually safe? That radical is anything but normal?

Come on!

Jesus didnt die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.

Its time to go all in and all out.

Pack your coffin!

B ack in the day, there was an astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus who challenged the belief that the earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus suggested that the sun didnt revolve around the earth, but rather that the earth revolved around the sun. The Copernican Revolution turned the scientific world upside down, and blew a lot of peoples minds.

We all need to experience a little Copernican Revolution in our own lives. That change happens once we come to terms with the fact that the world doesnt revolve around us. Thats what babies do: let the world feed them and change their diapers. But you have to grow up sometime, physically and spiritually. Of course, thats easier said than done.

When were born, everythings about us. Anyone and everyone in our presence is there to serve us. Its as if were alive solely to have people wait on us. And thats an okay mind-set if youre an infant. If youre seventeen, its a problem!

Heads up: Youre not the center of the universe!

All that to say, sinfulness is selfishness. Its placing yourself above all others your desires, your needs, your plans above everyone else. You might still seek God, but you definitely dont seek Him first. And thats the truth. You seek Him second or third or seventh. Even if you sing Jesus at the center of it all, what you really want to happen is for others to bow down to you because you bow down to Christ. That right there is a sneaky form of selfishness disguised as holiness, but is not truly Jesus centered. Its all about you. Its less about us serving His purposes and more about Him serving our purposes.

I like to call it the inverted gospel.

Whos Following Who

If you walk into most churches, most people think theyre following Jesus, but Im just not convinced. Those people might think that they are following Jesus, when actually theyve invited Jesus to follow them. They call Him Savior, but they havent ever given Him everything or really sacrificed anything significant for Him. Believe me, I used to be one of them. I wanted to go down my own path and have Jesus tag along. I wanted Jesus to follow me, to provide me with what I wanted, and to follow through with my will.

My Copernican Revolution didnt come to me until I was a nineteen-year-old freshman at the University of Chicago. This question sparked the revolution: Lord, what do You want me to do with my life? This question is a dangerous one to ask God, but not asking it would be ten times more dangerous.

My life became too hectic to control myself. Honestly, I didnt play God very well. Not to mention how tiring it became. I quit trying to find myself and decided to seek the Lord first. And I couldnt get enough of His Word! I got up early to pray. I actually fasted for the first time in my life I really meant business. I had never truly put God first, but this time I did.

On my last day of summer vacation, I woke up at the crack of dawn to walk around and pray. My family and I had taken a vacation at Lake Ida in Alexandria, Minnesota. The cow pasture I walked through may as well have been the backside of the Sinai Desert with a burning bush. Gods presence was obvious. Months after first asking God, I finally got an answer from Him. At that moment, I knew what God wanted me to do with my life.

The first day of my sophomore year, I took the first step toward Gods plan for me. I walked into the admissions office at the University of Chicago to tell them that I was transferring to a Bible college in Springfield, Missouri to pursue ministry full time. Its safe to say that the guidance counselor thought I was out of my mind. Most of my friends and family thought I was making a mistake too. I was giving up a