All In Quotes

“You can have faith or you can have control, but you cannot have both.” If you want God to do something off the chart, you have to take your hands off the controls.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Jesus didn’t die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous. Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It’s storming the gates of hell. The will of God is not an insurance plan. It’s a daring plan. The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn’t radical. It’s normal. It’s time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It’s time to go all in and all out for the All in All. Pack your coffin!”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“The gospel costs nothing. We cannot buy it or earn it. It can only be received as a free gift, compliments of God’s grace. So it costs nothing, but it demands everything. And that is where most of us get stuck — spiritual no-man’s-land. We’re too Christian to enjoy sin and too sinful to enjoy Christ. We’ve got just enough Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“You can base your identity on a thousand things — the degrees you’ve earned, the positions you hold, the salary you make, the trophies you’ve won, the hobbies you have, the way you look, the way you dress, or even the car you drive. But if you base your identity on any of those temporal things, your identity is a house of cards. There is only one solid foundation: Jesus Christ. If you find security in what you have done, you will always fall short of the righteous standard set by the sinless Son of God. The solution? The gospel. There is only one place in which to find your true identity and eternal security: what Christ has done for you.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Why do we act as though our sin disqualifies us from the grace of God? That is the only thing that qualifies us! Anything else is a self-righteous attempt to earn God's grace. You cannot trust God's grace 99 percent. It's all or nothing. The problem, as I pointed out earlier, is that we want partial credit for our salvation. We want to be 1 percent of the equation. But if we try to save ourselves, we forfeit the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ alone, by grace through faith.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“things were created by God and for God, no exceptions. Every note of music. Every color on the palette. Every flavor that tingles the taste buds. Arnold Summerfield, the German physicist and pianist, observed that a single hydrogen atom, which emits one hundred frequencies, is more musical than a grand piano, which only emits eighty-eight frequencies. Every single atom is a unique expression of God’s creative genius. And that means every atom is a unique expression of worship. According to composer Leonard Bernstein, the best translation of Genesis 1:3 and several other verses in Genesis 1 is not “and God said.” He believed a better translation is “and God sang.” The Almighty sang every atom into existence, and every atom echoes that original melody sung in three-part harmony by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Did you know that the electron shell of the carbon atom produces the same harmonic scale as the Gregorian chant? Or that whale songs can travel thousands of miles underwater? Or that meadowlarks have a range of three hundred notes? But the songs we can hear audibly are only one instrument in the symphony orchestra called creation. Research in the field of bioacoustics has revealed that we are surrounded by millions of ultrasonic songs. Supersensitive sound instruments have discovered that even earthworms make faint staccato sounds! Lewis Thomas put it this way: “If we had better hearing, and could discern the descants [singing] of sea birds, the rhythmic tympani [drumming] of schools of mollusks, or even the distant harmonics of midges [flies] hanging over meadows in the sun, the combined sound might lift us off our feet.” Someday the sound will lift us off our feet. Glorified eardrums will reveal millions of songs previously inaudible to the human ear.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Prayer is picking a fight with the Enemy. It's spiritual warfare. Intercession transports us from the sidelines to the front lines without going anywhere. And that is where the battle is won or lost. Prayer is the difference between us fighting for God and God fighting for us. But we can't just hit our knees. We also have to take a step, take a stand. And when we do, we never know what God will do next.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Don’t let fear dictate your decisions. Take a flying leap of faith. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Go all in with God. Go all out for God.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“...people can go to church every week of their lives and never go all in with Jesus Christ. I'm afraid we've cheapened the gospel by allowing people to buy in without selling out. We've made it too convenient, too comfortable. We've given people just enough Jesus to be bored but not enough to feel the surge of holy adrenaline that courses through your veins when you decide to follow Him no matter what, no matter where, no matter when.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“If you don’t hold out on God, I can promise you this: God will not hold out on you. But it’s all or nothing.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“A relationship begins when we open the front door, but it doesn’t end there. He knocks on the closet doors too! Jesus doesn’t just want in. He wants all in.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? That faithfulness is holding the fort? That playing it safe is safe? That there is any greater privilege than sacrifice? That radical is anything but normal? Jesus didn’t die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“We all want to spend eternity with God. We just don't want to spend time with Him. We stand and stare from a distance, satisfied with superficiality. We Facebook more than we seek His face. We text more than we study The Text. And our eyes aren't fixed on Jesus. They're fixed on our iPhones and iPads - emphasis on "i." Then we wonder why God feels so distant. It's because we're hugging the rim. We wonder why we're bored with our faith. It's because we're holding out.

We want joy without sacrifice.

We want character without suffering.

We want success without failure.

We want gain without pain.

We want a testimony without the test.

We want it all without going all out for it.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“You cannot be the hands and feet of Jesus if you’re sitting on your butt.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“We’re too Christian to enjoy sin and too sinful to enjoy Christ. We’ve got just enough Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Pride is a by-product of insecurity. And the more insecure a person is, the more monuments they need to build.

There is a fine line between 'Thy kingdom come' and 'my kingdom come.' If you cross the line, your relationship with God is self-serving.

You aren't serving God. You are using God.

You aren't building altars to God. You are building monuments to yourself.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Our normal is so subnormal that normal seems radical. To the first-century disciples, normal and radical were synonyms. We’ve turned them into antonyms.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“...the true value of an offering isn't measured by how much we give. It's measured by how much we keep...

By definition, a sacrifice must involve sacrifice...”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Sin always overpromises and underdelivers, while righteousness pays dividends for eternity...

Nothing is more illogical than sin. It's the epitome of poor judgment. It's temporary insanity with eternal consequences. And we have no alibi, save the cross of Jesus Christ.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“No one can glorify God like you or for you.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Going all in and all out for the All in All is both a death sentence and a life sentence. Your sinful nature, along with its selfish desires, is nailed to the cross. Then, and only then, does your true personality, your true potential, and your true purpose come alive. After all, God cannot resurrect what has not died. And that's why so many people are half alive. They haven't died to self yet.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“That is the heavenly Father's deepest impulse toward us. You are the apple of His eye. And anyone who messes with you messes with Him. His protective instincts are most poignantly seen at the cross - the place where unconditional love and omnipotent power for the amalgam called amazing grace. That's where the Creator stepped between every fallen sinner and the fallen angel, Satan. That's where the Advocate took His stand against the Accuser of the brethren. The Sinless Son of God took the fall for us.

The cross is God's way of saying, "You are worth dying for.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“The spiritual tipping point is when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change. Sadly, too many of us get comfortable with comfort. We follow Christ to the point of inconvenience, but no further. That's when we need a prophet to walk into our lives, throw a mantle around our shoulders, and wake us up to a new possibility, a new reality. We need a prophet to boldly confront Plan B and call us back to Plan A.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“No matter how many wrong turns we’ve taken and no matter how many detours we’ve been down, it’s God’s grace that gets us back onto the parade route.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It’s storming the gates of hell. The will of God is not an insurance plan. It’s a daring plan. The complete surrender of your life to the cause of Christ isn’t radical. It’s normal. It’s time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It’s time to go all in and all out for the All in All. Pack your coffin!”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“You can have faith or you can have control, but you cannot have both.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“When God doesn't conform to our expectations, we're tempted to betray what we believe in. Like Judas, we're in it for what we can get out of it. So when God doesn't grant our wishes like a divine genie in a bottle, we are tempted to turn our back on Him.

This is what separates the boys from the men. Or maybe I should say the sheep from the goats! How do you react when God doesn't meet your expectations? If you truly accepted the invitation to follow Jesus, you'll keep going on through hurricanes, hail, and hazardous conditions. If you have simply invited Him to follow you, you'll bail out at the first sign of bad weather.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“Long before God laid the foundation of the earth, He anticipated and provided for everything we’d ever need. You just need to give Him an opportunity to prove Himself faithful.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life

“God will never tempt you. It's not in His nature. In fact, He promises to provide an escape route for every tempting situation. But I can promise you this: God will test your faith. And those tests won't get easier. They will get progressively harder as the stakes get higher. And those tests will undoubtedly revolve around what is most important to you...

God will test you to make sure your identity and your security are found in the cross of Jesus Christ. And God will go after anything you trust in more than Him until you put it on the altar.”
― Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life