Set Your Mind Above

S2 E31 - The Anticipation

April 06, 2022 Season 2 Episode 31
Set Your Mind Above
S2 E31 - The Anticipation
Show Notes Transcript

Today was filled with anticipation. We are eager to have Kylie feeling better from the flu, and the kids kept asking about her. I am eager for baseball to start tomorrow, as it's opening day! In the world of golf, people were anxious to hear if after 14 months Tiger would feel well enough to compete in the Master's tournament again. In the music industry, highly awaited albums are getting ready to drop anyday. We anticipate the things we love - we think and talk about them frequently. Well...do I anticipate the Lord's return? Is the second comming of Christ and the resurrection something that I think about or talk about often? Regularly? My prayer is that it is, and that if it's not, that it's something that we put on into our minds every single day. 

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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. 

If there is one word that could best describe today, it would simply be this: anticipation. The entire day has been filled with it, for me, for my kids, my wife, and a whole ton of other people actually. Allow to explain. There is the anticipation for our family for Kylie to get better, especially the kids. Them having not been able to be around their mom who has a serious case of the flu for four days has been tough to say the least. There were at least five or six times today where the kids asked if she was better yet, to which I would reply not yet, and they would be visibly disappointed. At least we have been able to video chat from one room to the other often, and they have really enjoyed that. But no joke, we cannot wait to have her back around the rest of us, because we all miss her so much – and I know that she’s ready too. Then there is my anticipation for tomorrow. What’s happening tomorrow, you ask? Baseball’s happening, that’s what! After a long offseason of not even knowing if we would have baseball this year due to the lockout, opening day is tomorrow! I’ve got all the games that I want to watched marked out on my calendar and plan to have one on in the background for at least most of the day. As a Mariner’s fan, I am even more excited. One of the top prospects in all of baseball, Julio Rodriguez, who we’ve been waiting to watch play for quite some time, is finally making the jump to the big leagues and has the ball club buzzing. Maybe this will finally be our year where the Mariners win their first championship, fans have certainly waited long enough for it, 45 years in fact. There were so many other things that all boiled down to a long wait finally being realized that I saw today. As I was enjoying my morning coffee, I scrolled across a picture that caught my attention of Tiger Woods during a practice round today before the Masters Tournament. He was teeing off at one of the holes, but that’s not what grabbed my attention. On each side of the fairway, all the way down the course about 500 yards, there were thousands, and I mean thousands of people gathered to watch him play. You see, Tiger has not returned to the masters or golfed professionally like this since his severe accident that almost claimed his life back in February of 2021. Everyone has been waiting, watching for 14 months during his recovery to see what he would do. These thousands of people clamored to get as close as possible to him, wondering when and where he might make an announcement. Finally after golfing another 9 holes, he announced that with the way he was feeling in his recovery that he did in fact plan to compete in the tournament. There have been other things too that have fit the theme for the day. Highly anticipated new albums from musicians I follow are starting to show signs that they are about to drop a ton of new music very soon, and all kinds of YouTube reaction channels I follow were all over it and talking about their excitement. There are others, but at this point you get the point. When there is something that you’ve been waiting for patiently, the anticipation just grows and grows. It gets to the point where you are nearly on the edge of your seat, checking back daily or hourly for an update about whatever it is you can’t wait for. There’s no way in the world you could miss it or forget about it. Like for me, for instance, I forgot that this week was the masters because I don’t care that much about professional golf – I saw the post and went, “Oh yeah, that’s going on.” But I wouldn’t have missed opening day of baseball for anything. You get the idea – things that you anxiously await with great anticipation are the things you care about.

As I thought about these things, I’ve got to confess something to you, I felt convicted about my own faith. It started about the time I was putting my daughter to bed and she wanted me to tell her more stories from Scripture. Tonight we went with an Old Testament & a New Testament story, so I told her about Jericho, and then I told her about Lazarus. After the story of Lazarus, she was concerned and asked, “One day will brother die?” I was taken back and said, “Well, yes honey, everybody dies one day. But then one day we’ll be raised from the dead like Lazarus. That will happen for all of us the day that Jesus comes back.” That answer seemed to satisfy her, I tucked her in and came out to the living room and sat down. That’s when the following words went through my mind, as recorded for us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” I have spent everyday this week thinking about different upcoming events that I am excited for. Every day I have thought about Kylie getting better. Every day I have thought about our new baby that is growing in her womb. Every day this week I have thought about opening day for baseball. But you know what? I haven’t thought about the return of Jesus or the resurrection every day. It was like a gut punch to my stomach realizing this. It is so easy for us to become distracted by day to day things, or even inconsequential things like sports that we lose sight of the most important things. We anticipate the things that we love, and today my love for Jesus was given some correction. Paul told the Thessalonians, “Encourage one another with these words.” These words, the topic of the return of Jesus and resurrection from the dead, should be something not only that I think about every day, but something that I share with someone else as well. I’ve had plenty of conversations with others about this upcoming baseball season over this last week, but not only person about the upcoming return of Jesus. Of course, that’s what makes it harder, because we don’t know when that day will be. But in actuality, that means all the more I should have even greater anticipation for his return, because for all I know every single tomorrow might be that day. Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that we are wrong to look forward to other things, or that the only thing that should ever fill our mind is the second coming of the Christ. I’m not suggesting that, but what I am suggesting is that perhaps we need to reassess how important his return really is to us in our lives. If it’s important, we’ll anticipate it. If we’re not doing that, maybe I need to make some changes – I know I need to, because there truly is nothing I want to look forward to more than his return & my resurrection. I can’t think of a more fitting way to conclude this podcast than with the words John concludes Revelation with in 22:20, “He who testifies about these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” 

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.