April Fool's Day. A day that I both love and hate. A day that I love because I enjoy a great practical joke. A day that I hate because you never know what to take seriously. No matter what you read or hear, it takes extra work to do some digging to discover whether or not it's actually true. Nothing can be taken at face value. Well...maybe that's not such a bad thing, and maybe we need to be doing that more, especially spiritually. We tend to take the words of others that we respect as truth, especially pastors & evangelists, but that can be dangerous when it doesn't aline with God's Word. That is why we must be noble minded, test the spirits, and search the Scriptures daily to determine the validity of the things that we are told.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
April Fool's Day. A day that I both love and hate. A day that I love because I enjoy a great practical joke. A day that I hate because you never know what to take seriously. No matter what you read or hear, it takes extra work to do some digging to discover whether or not it's actually true. Nothing can be taken at face value. Well...maybe that's not such a bad thing, and maybe we need to be doing that more, especially spiritually. We tend to take the words of others that we respect as truth, especially pastors & evangelists, but that can be dangerous when it doesn't aline with God's Word. That is why we must be noble minded, test the spirits, and search the Scriptures daily to determine the validity of the things that we are told.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! I’m your host BJ Sipe – I’m a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. In this podcast we take everyday, ordinary events and explore how they can teach us extraordinary, eternal truths. I’m so glad that you joined me for this episode. Now, let’s open up our minds, our hearts, and our Bible’s together.
April first – a day that I have both a love/hate relationship with. As we know, today is commonly referred to as “April Fool’s Day” – a day filled with practical jokes and hoaxes in order to fool other people. The origin of this practice is debated, although some attribute it back as far as 1582 when France changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as was suggested by the council of Trent. But since the Julian calendar’s new year started with spring equinox on April 1st, those that didn’t catch on to the move to January 1st being the new start to the new year, they celebrated it anyway and became the object of many jokes. Whether there is any validity to that story or not is certainly not in my area of expertise, nor in actuality is the validity of just about anything that we read or see today. This is why I have such a love/hate relationship with today – because personally, I love practical jokes. I was a part of a great many of them in high school and college, and to this day will pull pranks on my wife or kids that drive them absolutely crazy. Sometimes I’ll tune in to shows completely dedicated to practical jokes, and all my wife and do is roll her eyes while I’m busting a gut. So, the prankster side of me loves today. However, the reasonable side of me that has matured and grown since my high school and college days absolutely hates today. You can take nothing at face value on April 1st, and it makes me feel really bad for people that actually have important news to share with others today. For example, I sat with a friend today who happened to be adopted and told me that today was his “gotcha day” – which is the day a family celebrates their child’s adoption. I had never heard that term, and so I thought the idea of it being his “gotcha” day was not just mere coincidence, so I said, “You’re just messing with me, aren’t you? You’re just waiting to say, gotcha!” But no, he assured me, today really was a special day for him, it just happens on to fall on the absolute worst day of the year for it to happen. Of course, then I felt terrible, but it’s just the nature of April Fool’s Day! You’ve got to investigate and second guess everything that you hear. I’ve already seen all kinds of funny jokes that were circulating around the internet today. That Marvel Studios bought the rights to Batman. That Will Smith & Chris Rock announced they’ll be co-staring in a new movie. That football players that have been long since retired were coming back out of retirement. That the Red Hot Chili Peppers were dropping their 12th studio album…oh, no wait, I guess that last one is actually true. Those guys just don’t age, I guess. Even the weather got in on the fun, as it’s currently sunny & blue skies, but this morning decided to dump snow for a few hours. You get the picture – nothing you see or hear can be taken seriously or at face value today. You’ve got to do some digging and get to the bottom of whether or not it’s actually true, or whether it was just another hoax being circulated around the internet. While I did get some great entertainment from the comment section of people that were duped by these hoaxes, it’s still annoying to say the least. It leaves me feeling bad for everyone who actually has something important to say or share today.
But as I thought about this, I started to think that maybe this isn’t such a bad thing for us to have to do after all. I mean, if we’re being honest with ourselves, how many times have we just taken something at face value to be true that we’ve read online without actually doing any digging to find out whether it was true or not? But as I thought more about this, I realized that there was an even deeper application for us to consider. How many times have we in our lives just taken for granted something that we were taught about God, Christ, or the Bible without actually looking into it ourselves? I cannot tell you how many times in having spiritual discussions with someone that I have heard them say, “Well, my pastor says…fill in the blank.” And almost every time, I try to respond by saying this, “But is that true though? What does the Scripture actually say?” We are so quick to trust blindly the word of those that we love, respect, or have learned a great deal from in our lives – but that does not make them infallible. It is for this very reason that John tells us in his first letter not to simply take at face value those who profess what is or is not the will of God. He writes, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.” (1 John 4:1-6) While the immediate, practical application then would differ in a world still full of spiritual gifts and prophecy, the same principle applies to us. We must test the spirits, and never just blindly accept the teachings of anyone, myself included. Because my friends, it is not my teaching or my words that you will one day be judged by, but the words and teachings of Christ. For this reason, if I personally came to you teaching you something that stood contrary to Scripture, I would hope that you would love me enough to correct me! What I say matters nothing if it does not also align with the Word of God. That is why we must be diligent to search the Scriptures ourselves, to discover whether the things we are hearing from others are in fact true. This is why the Bereans were praised in the book of Acts by Paul & Silas, for after departing from Thessalonica where they were greatly opposed, we read, “As soon as it was night, the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. Upon arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Consequently, many of them believed, including a number of the prominent Greek women as well as men.” (Acts 17:10-12) Did you catch that? These people were considered more noble minded, that is to say of more sound judgment & character, because while they were eager to receive the word, they did not receive it blindly. They searched the Scriptures themselves exhaustively to determine if there was validity to the words of Paul & Silas concerning Jesus the Christ. As it turned out, there was, and therefore a great number of them believed. But the Bereans leave for us a powerful example to imitate, not just today, but every day that we hear spiritual things declared and shared. We must not simply take such teachings at face value, but open our Bibles, search the Scriptures, and determine whether or not the things we’re told are actually true. God expects us to do our research, and that’s no joke.
Thank you for tuning in to today’s episode, and I would invite you back Tuesdays-Fridays for a brand-new episode each day. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for occasional announcements and special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, please if you’re able be sure to share it with someone else that you think could benefit from it as well. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.