My wife has now taken on the task of painting the interior of our house a new color. While it has so far been fairly easy, we've made it to the living room with 12 foot vaulted ceilings & other hard to reach places because of built in bookcases. We were not equipped to take this part on ourselves, which is why we borrowed a free standing ladder to help. All of our projects have gone something like this, where alone we couldn't do it, but with the help of others we could get the job done. Well...isn't reaching the lost just like this? Some people are hard for us to reach, but where we cannot, others can! Thank God for the diversity in his church, so that each of us being differently equipped can bring Jesus to others!
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
My wife has now taken on the task of painting the interior of our house a new color. While it has so far been fairly easy, we've made it to the living room with 12 foot vaulted ceilings & other hard to reach places because of built in bookcases. We were not equipped to take this part on ourselves, which is why we borrowed a free standing ladder to help. All of our projects have gone something like this, where alone we couldn't do it, but with the help of others we could get the job done. Well...isn't reaching the lost just like this? Some people are hard for us to reach, but where we cannot, others can! Thank God for the diversity in his church, so that each of us being differently equipped can bring Jesus to others!
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
Well, my own little Joanna Gaines whom I call “my wife” is back at it again in our home. Kylie has an incredible eye for interior design while simultaneously finding great enjoyment in changing things up & trying something new. Those two combinations mean that we are always doing some kind of project at our home at any given time. My wife has done some incredible things. We’ve put shiplap in our bedroom. We’ve built thick, wooden shelves for both the laundry and dining room. We’ve done an outdoor patio & firepit. Now, our newest project is that my wife has taken it upon herself to paint the interior of our house. When we purchased our house, even though it was still in the process of being built, a warm gray paint color had already been applied – which overall we really didn’t mind. But wanting to lighten up the house, Kylie has been room by room working through the house and changing it to a really gentle white. A few months back she did Ava’s room as well a focal wall in Dane’s room. Her next step was taking on the dining room, which she actually painted a charcoal color to offset the white wainscoting below. Now she has finally reached the living area, having already done our entry way and now moving on to our living room. There is just one problem with trying to tackle our living room – it has vaulted 12 foot ceilings. Where so far Kylie has been able to use our little step ladder to grab the high points on the wall, this is going to require a lot more. To complicate things, against the big wall with the vaulted ceilings is a large gas fireplace with bookcases on each side. It comes out a good foot & a half to two feet from the wall, and so painting up above the fireplace is going to take some doing. Most of these areas are really hard to reach places, and even with an extension pole and a paint roller it was going to be challenging. That is why I ran over to Randy Ratliff’s this morning to borrow his 8 foot free standing ladder to tackle this project. While we do have a 16 foot extension ladder in our garage, leaning it up against he book shelves or the wall was going to cause damage and leave us at a strange angle to paint. Simply put, we were not equipped to be able to take on the project that we wanted to take on, but Randy was. He has the tools to get us to all these hard to reach places, otherwise it just wasn’t going to happen. As a matter of fact, so many of our projects have gone something like this. To do our shiplap, we needed to borrow Randy’s compressor & nail gun. To do our shelves, we borrowed his woodshop & table saw. To do our next project of pressure washing the house, driveway and walkways, we’ll need to borrow the right tools from Jonathan Leber. I’m so grateful for being able to lean on these guys to help me to the jobs Kylie has in mind, because we just don’t have the right tools to do them ourselves. So starting tonight, if I have the energy after my ongoing gospel meeting in the next town over in Stanford, KY, I’ll come home and get after it along with my wife.
As I drove back from picking up the ladder, I started to realize how similar our recent projects have been to the process of bringing the gospel to the lost. In Matthew 28:19-20, we read what is commonly referred to as the “Great Commission.” Here Jesus’ prior to his ascension says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” As saved people of God, having experienced the love & mercy of Jesus, we now do what we can to share that same love & mercy with others. Just as the scattered church in Acts 8 went about preaching the Word, so as we go into the world we bring the gospel with us both through our words & our actions. That that being said, here is part of the problem: some people are going to be really hard for us to reach. What do I mean by that? Well, there are considerable obstacles that stand in our way of sharing the gospel of Jesus with others. One very well might be geographical – while I would love to share the truth of Jesus with those who live in places like Europe or Africa, aside from this podcast the reality is I am not there to do so. Another obstacle is a lack of opportunity – there are hundreds of people in our community that I might never have the chance to meet. We will simply never cross paths at any point in our lives. Even another obstacle is relational – that is to say that I am not able to connect with some people like others are able to, perhaps based upon different experiences, interests, etc. But here is the beauty of the church: bringing the gospel to the lost is not just my job alone. If it were, then millions of people would be lost as they would be beyond my reach to share Jesus with them. But as it is, it is not just my responsibility, all of us have been commissioned to share Jesus with others. It is here that we see where diversity in the church is such a powerful thing. In 1 Corinthians 12:14-18 we read, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” In the Lord’s church, we all come from very different places and all have very different abilities, and this is a blessing when it comes to reaching the lost! Our diversity breaks down barriers, so that no one is beyond our reach. The obstacle of geographical distance is broken down, because while I cannot reach the lost on the others side of the globe, there are Christians there already who are already doing that! The obstacle of opportunity is broken down, because while I might never have the chance to meet someone in our community and share Jesus with them, there are other Christians who worship with us that do! We all work different jobs, live in different neighborhoods, and run in different circles – as such, each of us is uniquely equipped to share Jesus with people that others are not! Even the relational obstacle is broken down because of a lack of shared experiences. Every single one of us has walked a very different path – we have our own struggles, our own failures, and our own interests – and yet Jesus has united us in him. Do you recognize that your past experiences can be used to touch the hearts and lives of others with the gospel? The person who has struggled with drug addiction or alcohol addiction before Christ can reach people that perhaps I might never be able to, because they can relate. You are uniquely equipped to minister to others because of who you are & because of where you’ve come from. The summarize, you cannot reach everyone, but together, no one is beyond our reach. Let’s praise God together for his church, for it’s diversity, and let’s get busy as we are each uniquely equipped to seek & save the lost.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.