We went to the Ark Encounter a few days ago, and I was shocked to find that something was distracting my daughter from the animals in the zoo. What was it? Gravel. She wanted to pick up rocks rather than see the animals she could only find at the zoo. When it was time to leave, she changed her mind, but by then it was too late. Well...how often we do chose the worthless things over this world over fixing our eyes on Jesus? Despite being given chance after chance, we continue pursing the worthless lusts of the flesh. If you wait until the end before you repent, by then it will be too late. Turn your eyes on Jesus, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory & grace.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
We went to the Ark Encounter a few days ago, and I was shocked to find that something was distracting my daughter from the animals in the zoo. What was it? Gravel. She wanted to pick up rocks rather than see the animals she could only find at the zoo. When it was time to leave, she changed her mind, but by then it was too late. Well...how often we do chose the worthless things over this world over fixing our eyes on Jesus? Despite being given chance after chance, we continue pursing the worthless lusts of the flesh. If you wait until the end before you repent, by then it will be too late. Turn your eyes on Jesus, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory & grace.
#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.
We have just about reached the end of the summer as July is coming to a close. Kids are heading back to school in the next few weeks and teachers are reporting back to their classrooms next week. With that being said, sadly it also means that our time with our preaching intern, Bobby Petty, is coming to a close as well. Bobby and his wife Gaby have been with us for the past 8 weeks as Bobby has been learning how to preach from myself and several others here at the church in Danville. However, seeing as how both of them are school teachers by profession, it is time for them to head back to Florida and prep their classrooms. Since their time is drawing to a close here, there were several things that we wanted to be sure they were able to do before they left the state. One of those things was the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky – which is about an hour ½ away from Danville. So, last Friday, we all loaded up in the car and headed that way to spend the day at the exhibit. If you’ve never been to the Ark Encounter before, I cannot encourage you enough to make the trip to see it. There is so much great information as well as many challenging thoughts that will leave you walking away from the experience built up in your faith. The ark is not the only attraction there, however, as there are several fun things to do with your family. There is a virtual reality experience, a zip line, great food, live music, and even a small zoo. The zoo is always the highlight for the kids, who absolutely love seeing all the animals. They have red kangaroos, camels, sloths, turtles, zebras, ostridge, and even lemurs. While the sloths are Dane’s favorite (as well as mine), the lemurs are Ava’s favorite – in many thanks to the Madagascar movie and the lemurs that sing “I like to move it, move it.” Anyhow, here we are at the zoo and in front of the lemurs, which are her favorite, and I look over to see that Ava has quickly lost interest in the rare animals playing in front of her. Something else had captured my daughter’s attention. What could it have been? Another animal surely, right? Maybe even a massive ice cream cone that someone had walked by holding? Nope. The thing that had captured my daughter’s attention was…gravel. Yep. Plain, ordinary, nothing special little rocks that were packed around the edge of the different animal enclosures. I said, “Ava, don’t you want to watch the lemurs anymore?” To which she responded, “No, I just want to work on my rock collection.” Oh brother. Here we are, standing right in front of something she can only see here, but she’s more interested in picking up rocks that you can find anywhere than look at the lemurs. This continued on through the rest of our time walking through the small zoo. By the time we had walked out, there was quite the collection of gravel she had picked up in the stroller that I was pushing. And the worst part? I just threw all of those rocks back onto the ground before we left, because I certainly wasn’t going to lug a bunch of worthless gravel home for her. When we did leave, she was sad that it was time to go because she said that she wanted to go back and see the animals. I told her, “Kiddo, you had the chance to. I asked you if you wanted to see them over and over, but you just wanted to pick up rocks instead, and now it’s too late.”
As we loaded up in the car and I consoled a very sad three-year-old, I shared with Bobby & Gaby that her behavior with the rocks is really not all that dissimilar from our behavior if we are not careful. We would much rather have the worthless things of the world rather than the beautiful, wonderful things that we can only find in Christ Jesus. We are given a grossly descriptive and stern warning of turning our gaze away from Christ and back to the world in 2 Peter 2:20-22, “For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.” We are offered every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ, things that cannot be found anywhere else. In Jesus we can have grace, forgiveness, mercy, truth, hope, and freedom. While we might experience mere shadows and glimpses of these things from others, the substance belongs to Christ. How terrible then would it be for someone to have experienced Jesus in this way, only to turn away back to the worthless things that they were freed from? Peter likens it to a dog that eats its own vomit, or a pig that returns to the mud hole. A gross, but apt description. To reject Christ and return to living according to one’s fleshly lusts is to choose that which is worthless over the only thing that has worth. Why would I say this? Because the things belonging to Christ will last for eternity, but the things belonging to this world will be destroyed. Even more important however is this: we will share the fate with whichever we chose. 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.” We have a choice that we have to make: Christ or the world. If we chose Christ and we fix our gaze upon him, not only will we gain access to every spiritual blessing found only in Jesus, but we will have the hope of eternal life. If we chose the world and turn back to the lusts of our flesh, not only will we have foolishly given ourselves back over into slavery to that which is worthless, but we will once again find ourselves in a lost state. There have been many that have been mistakenly led to believe that once you have been saved that you can never lose your salvation. Please don’t misunderstand what I am about to say, we certainly cannot earn our salvation. We will never be righteous enough to earn God’s grace – it is a gift. But we must remember, we are saved by grace through faith. If we abandon that faith and turn our hearts away from Jesus and throw ourselves back into immorality – the only thing we will have waiting for us is judgement. Scripture warns us when it says, “For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who has said, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, and again, The Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-31) My friends…don’t gather rocks. Don’t chase after that which is worthless again instead of continuing to chase after Jesus. Because when the end comes, it will be too late. You will have been given chance time and time again from Jesus to repent and turn back to him, but you will not be given another when your time comes.
Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode, and I would invite you back every Tuesday for a brand-new episode each week. 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 to 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.