S4 E13 - The Wasp & The Boot

We were all outside eating when a wasp flew into our sons rainboots that we leave outside.  When I went to hose it out and take care of the wasp, I was shocked to be met with not just one wasp but several more as well as a nest. I'm so glad we caught it when we did, otherwise my son would have run outside to play one of these rainy days and stepped right into an incredible amount of pain and potentially significant harm. 

This is exactly the way Satan works in our lives. If we are not alert and careful, Satan will come and make his home in our hearts or in our homes. As a result, we can get hurt and our children can get hurt, as we walk right into his trap. We must be alert so as to keep Satan from taking up residence. But after we evict him, we must do all we can to keep him out again - because like the wasps, he will be back. 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

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? 

 Welcome back to season 4 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Thanks for tuning in! 

It has been a crazy couple of weeks over here at the Sipe household, and there is no shortage of material that I could share with you guys. We had our hot water heater go out last Friday (hence the lack of a podcast last week). I’ve been driving back and forth to Lexington each night this whole week doing a lecture series for another local church. Finley has had occupational therapy and chiropractor appointments all over the place. And just to add to our chaos, we let the kids talk us into letting them adopt a kitten this past week. I know…it’s a lot. However, of all the things that have taken place, there is one instance that I want to share with you all this week. As the weather has turned gradually into more summer warmth, we have spent more of our meals outside eating together as a family – particularly when we grill out. That’s exactly what we were doing last week – we grilled burgers and sat together enjoying the sunshine on our back porch. Like any typical family with young children, our backyard is usually decorated with all kinds of outdoor toys: balls, bats, racquets, dump trucks, you name it. In addition to this, as soon as you step out onto our back porch directly to the right there is a shoe rack holding all of the kids outdoor footwear. As we were eating dinner, Dane suddenly jumped out of his chair and started working his way towards us – something had startled him. “What’s wrong bud?” I asked, to which he replied, “There’s a wasp!”  Sure enough, I looked over to the general direction he was pointing and saw a wasp starting to make its decent down towards their footwear. It ended up settling on Dane’s rainboot and climbing down inside of it. Dane, still freaking out, was hesitant to get back into his chair until I took care of it. “Don’t worry, Daddy will hose him out,” I told him. I walked over and grabbed the boot, pinching the opening shut so that the wasp could not escape. I shook the boot up pretty good so as to disorient the wasp as I grabbed the hose and turned it to the jet setting. Then, opening up the mouth of the boot, I lowered the nozzle down inside and let the water do the work. What happened next, however, I was not expecting at all. After a steady jet stream pummeled the inside of the boot for about 20 seconds, I turned it upside down and started to shake the boot again so the dead wasp would come out. And it did, along with several other wasps and a nest! I immediately turned the hose back onto the slowly moving additional wasps now laying on the ground in the grass and got Kylie’s attention. “That could have been really, really bad!” I said, as she looked over to see the decent sized wasp nest now in pieces on the ground. We have always kept the kids rainboots just sitting outside on our back porch, so that way if the ground is muddy, the kids could still slip on their boots and go play. The thought had never crossed our mind that something could work its way in and make its home in a relatively untouched boot. I’m so thankful that we caught it when we did, otherwise my son could have shoved his foot in on multiple wasps and gotten himself hurt pretty badly – and all because we just weren’t thinking or aware of the potential for harm. 

In our fight against the enemy, what just took place with the wasp and the boot could happen with Satan if we are not careful. What exactly do I mean? Well, let’s consider what the apostle Peter has to say in 1 Peter 5:8 – “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.” This is the reality of the spiritual battleground we are in – Satan is looking for any way to harm us around every turn. The tempter, the great liar from the beginning, comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. We know this, and so it begs the question if we know that the enemy is coming, how is he so successful in his attacks against us? Peter explains how: it’s because we just aren’t alert and paying attention. All of us have areas of our life that perhaps we do not have our guard up, that we are not paying attention, and before we even realize it Satan has come and made his home in our home. That’s when we get hurt. That’s when our children get hurt. We go about our business, completely unaware of Satan’s presence, until it is too late and we walk right into his trap.

My friends, we must protect our children and we must protect our homes from the enemy. To do this, we must be on the alert. We must be aware of the schemes of Satan and be plugged into the lives of our children and what is coming into our homes. By way of application, consider the following things and ask yourself, “Am I alert? Am I aware?” With your children’s education, are you alert and aware of what your children are learning and from whom they are learning it? If you are not, Satan very quickly can work his way into their hearts and into your home. What about their friends or their peers? Are you aware of where your children are, who they are with, and the kind of things they do or talk about? The kinds of places they go? If not, you are giving the devil another opportunity to harm your children. What about the music they listen to? The things they watch? The apps they frequent? We could go on and on, but it is of the utmost importance that we adhere to the admonition of Peter: be sober-minded, and be alert! It is when we are not alert, not thinking, and not guarded that Satan will make his dwelling place in the hearts and lives of our children or in our home. 

And here is the scariest thing…once we kick Satan out, we must be vigilant to keep him out. For example, we hosed out Dane’s boot and took care of the nest. But if we continue to just leave their footwear out like we have been, what are the chances of this happening again? Pretty likely, especially for any wasps that weren’t home when we evicted them. Jesus will warn us that Satan works in the exact same way in Matthew 12:43-45, “When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn’t find any. Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’ Returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that person’s last condition is worse than the first. That’s how it will also be with this evil generation.” Our fight against Satan is never over while we remain in the flesh. He is cunning, and he will try to work his way right back into our lives if we are not careful. May God grant us the courage, the wisdom, and the resilience to keep our homes, and our children, away from the enemy. 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 4 episode 13 – and I’m so thankful that you decided to tune in today! A new episode is dropped most Fridays, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, as well as share it with someone else – it would help me greatly in trying to reach others. And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.