S2 E15 - National Signing Day

Today is national signing day in the world of college football. Athletes that have been saught after by different universities now make a full commitment to where they will choose to play ball. While many prior to today have made a verbal commitment, that often means nothing and can change come signing day. But today is official, and they are all in. Well...you are being recruited as well. Both Satan & God want you, but for different reasons. Satan wants to destroy you. God wants to save you. But God wants more than a verbal commitment, because talk is cheap. It's time to commit yourself fully to him. 

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Transcript

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. 

Today is another special day for several reasons! First, my wife’s parents Shane & Gwen Vaughan, known as Papa & Gigi in our home, arrived for an extended visit today! It is always so good to see them, and our kids have been absolutely ecstatic to see them for a few weeks. Second, the date is 2/2/22! It’s too bad it didn’t fall on a Tuesday, but I guess you can’t win them all. But thirdly, what we actually wanted to key in on today, is that today in the world of college football is National Signing Day. Now, you don’t need to know or care anything about football for today’s podcast to be applicable or make sense, so just sit back and allow me to give you some context in understanding what this day is all about. Naturally, there are incredible athletes that are playing at the high school level in every single state with the goal of playing at the collegiate level. These athletes are evaluated by different scouts and organizations and the best athletes are given a grade anywhere from 1-5 stars, with 5 being the highest. 5 stars are hardly ever handed out, but these would be the most sought after athletes from different colleges based on the promise they show and their potential going into college. College coaches from across the nation spend a good amount of their time trying to recruit the athletes that impress them the most and would fill the holes in their roster that need the most attention going into the next year. They will do in home visits with these athletes, invite them to come tour the school and the facilities, and keep in touch via social media and telephone calls, etc. As is the case with almost every player, they are recruited by more than one school. Some kids will get as many as 10-12 schools that have expressed interest in them coming to play for them on scholarship, and many factors come into play before they make a decision. That is what brings us to national signing day. Prior today (aside from early signing period which recently came back) athletes who made up their mind where they wanted to play already had up to this point only made verbal commitments. That is to say that a quarterback, linebacker, or whomever had made a public announcement that they were going to take their talents to this school or that school. But there is a big difference between making a verbal commitment and actually signing a letter of intent. That is exactly what national signing day is all about. On this day, the players make it official and sign a letter of intent to where they are going to play college ball. It brings a lot of excitement for a lot of reasons. Sometimes players have not made up their mind until today and had verbalized nothing. As such, where they sign to is a big surprise. In other instances, sometimes athletes can be flipped to another school, meaning after having made a verbal commitment they change their minds and sign on elsewhere. Talk is cheap, but today is the day that players have to put their names on the dotted line and make a full commitment to the university of their choice that has recruited them and get ready to get to work. 

There might be a few of you that are tuning in that are familiar with this process, there may even be a select few that have been recruited to play collegiate sports in the past! But whether you realize it or not, this same process is something that each and every single one of us has or will experience. You are being recruited, right now, by two opposing sides. Both are desperate for you to commit yourself to them, but both have very different goals in mind. One wants to destroy you, while the other wants to save you. You are being sought out at this very moment by Satan. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.” Satan is relentless, and he will stop at nothing until he has you in his clutches. And while he promises freedom, through deception he seeks only to devour and destroy you. But he is not the only one that is searching for you. We read in 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him.” You are also being sought out by the Lord, and for very different reasons. He does not want to destroy you but support you. He wants to save you and give you life, to escape from the lies of Satan after being captured by him to do his will. This is where we all find ourselves – and each one of us will have to make a decision whom we will serve, but the only one that leads to life is in committing our whole heart to God. And here is the kicker…talk is cheap. God does not want a mere verbal commitment from you, because our words mean next to nothing if they are not followed by action. Jesus himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) Do you understand what Jesus is teaching us here? Just claiming that you are a Christian does not make you one. Just saying that you love God does not mean that you actually do. Words are just that: words. What gives our words power and substance is when they are then followed by action, true commitment. As Jesus stated, it is only those who actually do the will of his Father who will see the kingdom of God. It is only those who are ready to follow him with everything and commit themselves fully to him. We read in Matthew 16:24 these words of Jesus, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Jesus from the very beginning has always been looking for true commitment, and nothing less. Discipleship is not about wearing a cross necklace, sometimes attending a church service or listening to Christian music. It’s not about saying you love Jesus, and then if anyone ever challenges that falling back on the classic, “God knows my heart” response. Discipleship is radical, life changing, and all encompassing. In his work titled The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” My friends, it’s signing day. It’s time to fully commit yourself and your life over to Jesus. No more words, no more mere talk, but action. That first step is exactly as Bonhoeffer outlines – and that is dying to the old man, telling Satan that you will no longer entertain his offers, committing yourself in repentance and baptism in water in the name of Jesus, rising to follow him. So, what are you waiting for? Jesus is seeking you now even as we speak. Are you ready to commit yourself to him? 

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.