Hot Or Cold All In Or All Out

 

Are you hot or cold? Are you all in or all out? 

I want to share an example of this. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Most of us know the story in Daniel, chapter three, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused to bow down to a statue of Nebuchadnezzar that he made of himself that he wanted everyone to bow down to that statue and worship him, and they refused. 

Now they were taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, brought before him because they refused to bow down. They refused to do what was unjust before God and they chose to make a stand and do what was right at all cost, knowing that it had already been stated throughout the entire land, that whoever did not bow down to the statue was going to be thrown into the fiery furnace. 

So they were brought before the king and Nebuchadnezzar was so angry at their refusal that he demanded the furnace be turned up even higher than it originally was. So his men, his guards, turned the furnace to be even hotter. They bound Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they were given one more chance. Nebuchadnezzar said, If you bow down, I will not throw you into the fiery furnace, and they told him that we will not bow down. Our God is well able to deliver us from this furnace. However, even if He chooses not to, we will not bow down in disobedience of our God. 

So he had them thrown into the fiery furnace, and in the process of throwing them into the fiery furnace, the guards were killed immediately because of the intense heat, but they were thrown in and then the door was shut. 

Now, Nebuchadnezzar himself, he looked, and then he realized there were not just three in the furnace. He asked, 'Didn't we only throw three men into the fiery furnace?' And the guards answered, 'There's a fourth one walking around and he appears to be as a god. 

The king demanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, be brought out of the furnace. When they were brought out of the furnace, they were unburned, unharmed, and unsinged. They didn't even have the smell of smoke on them. 

Now, this is what I want to relate to you. To be hot or cold, to be all in for God or all out. 

In Revelation three, it says, 'That because you are not hot or cold, that I would even want you to be hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.' 

God wants us to be either hot or cold. Meaning if we're hot, we're all in for God. If we're cold, we're all out. There is no in-between. You can't straddle the fence and walk both sides. It doesn't work that way. You're either all in or you're all out. There is nothing else. 

Even Paul said for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul himself understood to live means, I am all in for Jesus, to die means I gain to be in His presence. 

So are you hot? Are you cold? Are you all in for God or are you all out? 

Have you had moments when you've had to make decisions that were tough? Have you had challenges where you had to make a stand that was going to cost you something? Was it going to cost you your job? Was it going to cost you your family? Was it going to cost you, friends? 

Have you had to make decisions like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, if you did it, knowing the decision you were making was the decision God wants you to make, then you're all in. If you didn't. Then you're all out. 

So I encourage you, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how big the challenge is, we all go through challenges. All of us. It's without fail. We live in an imperfect world. We all face challenges that sometimes take our breath away to the point where we feel sometimes that death would even be better. 

However, to be all in like Paul said, we have to make those tough decisions sometimes, even if it's going to cost us something that we consider valuable. Yet there's nothing more valuable than being all in for Jesus, being all in for Him. That's really all that matters in this life, and He will reward us for it. 

So I encourage you, be hot. Be all in. Don't be cold. Don't be all out. 

I hope this has helped you today. 

God bless. 

Shalom.