S3 E36 - Bidding On A Bracelet

A few weeks ago my wife and I attended a fundraising event to support the adoption agency Sacred Selections. I had hoped to win a beutiful bracelet for my wife in the silent auction, but I kept getting outbid by someone all night. After a while, I realized something hilarious - my wife and I had been unknowingly bidding against each other! Needless to say, we didn't leave with the bracelet. Well...as funny as that might be, do we realize that a house divided against itself cannot stand when it comes to any kingdom? That includes when we bite and devour each other as the church. We are called to love one another, not compete with each other. We cannot forget that we're all on the same team with the same mission, and we are called to work together, not against each other. 

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Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths?

Would you believe me? 
 Hi, I’m BJ Sipe – and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast. 

I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father.

Thanks for tuning in!

I am recording at the coffee shop again today, as you can hear, and they are really hoping! So enjoy the background sounds of the hustle and bustle of my small little town around me. This is our third episode this week as we are finally getting caught all back up, and today I wanted to share a story with you of something that happened just a few weeks ago but I haven’t had an opportunity to share with you yet. So a few weeks ago, Kylie and I had the opportunity to attend and support an event that is very important to us. It was a Sacred Selections fundraiser dinner and auction hosted in Lexington, Kentucky. If you don’t know what Sacred Selections is, I would encourage you to stop whatever you’re doing after this podcast and spend some time reading up on this non-profit organization. Founded by David & Dana Carrozza, Sacred Selections assists in pairing children that need a home to be adopted into a Christian family. As you know, adoption is very expensive, but the cost of an adoption is nothing close to the cost a child faces if they are raised in a home without faith, hope, or love. So Sacred Selections among many other things works with other generous people & businesses to offset the cost of an adoption by raising funds for godly families. God’s people are and have always been called to care for the fatherless, be it financial support or even bringing a child into your own home. Sacred Selections and all those involved are dedicated to doing this great work among God’s people. While this is a very serious and important work, these events are also an absolute blast. There are key note speakers or entertainers, a silent and live auction (of which 100% of the proceeds go to the cost of adoption), and of course just the joy of spending time with hundreds of other Christians from all around the state of the event you’re attending. This brings us to our funny story I have to share with you today. As you enter these events, silent auction items are spread out and located all across the venue. As you mingle and wander, you are able to bid on any or all of these different items through your mobile device throughout the event. Well as Kylie and I were wandering and discovering different items we wanted to bid on, we came to this beautiful gold bracelet that was on display. It just so happened that Kylie had lost a golden bracelet she loved earlier that week, so naturally I told her to try this one on. It was a perfect fit. She said she’d think about it, let’s wander some more and not to bid on anything yet. I told her okay, but I wasn’t listening to anything she said. Within a few minutes, I made my first bid on that bracelet. I was determined that I wasn’t going to leave that event without getting her that beautiful piece of jewelry – and the money couldn’t go to a better cause. We finally sat down at our table as the event started and I continued to discretely keep an eye on the bidding. Occasionally I would be outbid in 5 or 10 dollar increments, so I would promptly raise my bid when that happened. We finished dinner and were listening to the keynote speaker when I got a notification on my phone: I had been outbid again. So I upped my bid and put my phone back down. Within 10 seconds my phone buzzed: I had once again been outbid. I picked up my phone and said to myself, “Okay, let’s do this.” I raised. I was outbid. I raised again. I was outbid. Up and up it went, and before 1 minute had passed the bidding price had been raised over a hundred dollars on this bracelet. I took a deep breath and said, “Okay, I’m gonna raise one more time to try and get this bracelet for my wife,” and hit the bid button. I set my phone down and looked back up at the keynote speaker to tune back in. Just then, my wife Kylie picked up her phone from across the table and under her breath goes, “Oh come on!” “What?” I whispered to her. “Well,” she said, “I just kept thinking about that bracelet, so I decided to bid on it. But someone keeps outbidding me every time I bid on it within a few seconds!” My eyes opened wide, and I cracked the biggest smile. “Honey…I’ve been bidding on that bracelet!” We both burst into quiet laughter as she smacked my leg. Go figure, here we were, members of the same household, both bidding against each other on the same item for the same thing and driving up the price. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t get to leave with the bracelet as it ended up going for far above our budget, but we left with the funniest story and the satisfaction of helping to raise more money for such a good cause. 

It's a hilarious story, and while I will never not laugh when I think about it, there is an important lesson in this for us to consider. We read an account in Luke 11 of the Lord casting out a demon, and the response of those who witnessed this miracle was to question by what authority he did this. Some suggested that his authority came from the devil himself. Jesus had something to say about this. The text says in vv. 14-17, “Now he was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon came out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” And others, as a test, were demanding of him a sign from heaven. Knowing their thoughts, he told them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and a house divided against itself falls.” Contextually, Jesus was making a point about the absurdity of their accusation. It made no sense that Satan would cast his own servants out – and Jesus makes this point by making the statement that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Just as a nation can be destroyed from without, civil war and unrest can cause it to be destroyed from within. 

What Jesus said has much greater application than simply to defend his actions. From the beginning of John the Baptists ministry through Jesus’ ministry, it was preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” As it now stands, that kingdom is no longer near, because it is in fact here! We read in Revelation 1:5-6, “To him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” We, the church, are the kingdom that was promised from the prophets like Daniel from the very beginning. Jesus told Pilate his kingdom was not of this world, we are a spiritual kingdom composed of those who are spiritual and made one body in Christ. So this is the question we need to ask ourselves…what is the greatest threat to the kingdom of God? Attacks from the outside, or could it be that the greatest threat comes from within the church itself? 

We read in Galatians 5:13-16 the following warning from Paul: “For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.” 

We are the household of God, made a spiritual family by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are called to love one another, serve one another, and help one another on our way to heaven. And yet…how many times do we fail to even do this? Instead of loving and serving one another, brothers and sisters in Christ can be guilty of fighting and competing against each other. The works of the flesh, if not conquered by walking in love in step with the Spirit, have the power to destroy the church from within. Rather than working together, we end up working against each other – bidding against each other so to speak, and we don’t even realize what we’re doing. This is why, immediately after condemning our fights and quarrels among each other, James would write, “Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” (James 4:11) 

My friends, have we forgotten the exhortation of our Lord in John 13:34-35, “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This is how the world will know that we are the kingdom of God. Not by how right you show yourself to be. Not by what arguments you win. Not by who endorses you or stands by your side. They will know we are Christians by our love for each other. So, we have a mission given to us by God. Let’s stop fighting with one another, stop destroying our own family & body in Christ, and start working together as the family God has always intended for us to be. 

Thank you for tuning in for this week’s final episode, and with the holiday being next Thursday, look for an episode to drop a little earlier in the week for the next podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for future announcements or even some special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, share it with someone else that you think would benefit from it also. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.