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.
A very happy new year to each and every single one of you! I trust that you had a great weekend with your family and friends to ring in the year 2022. And boy, what a year it has already been! I’ve got to tell you, I have never seen stranger weather over the winter than we have had over the past month. Living in Kentucky, we have been on the receiving end of all the severe weather that the Midwest & South have been pounded with. While we have not received the massive snow dump that the East is currently getting, New Year’s Day was full of storms and tornado warnings all day long. It wasn’t but a few weeks ago that Mayfield, Bowling Green & other parts of Kentucky were decimated by the supercell tornado that traveled hundreds of miles. Then on Saturday, it looked like they were going to get hit again. I think everyone was a little bit on edge after the past storms, I know that I certainly was. I was at home alone with the kids Saturday morning as Kylie was at our place of worship getting her classroom ready for the next day. While Danville never got a tornado, it sure wasn’t looking good in the morning. At one point, I looked out back and the wind was so bad that it picked up our patio chairs in the middle of our backyard and threw them against our house. That’s when I took our kids and got inside the closet and called me wife, asking what she wanted us to do. She picked up and said that our friends Blake & Brianna Ratliff had invited us to come spend the day with them at their house since they have a full basement which is much safer. I was so relieved to hear this and we packed up the kids and went over to their home. Once we got there, we were looking online to see if there as any storm trackers that we could watch live to help us know what all was going on & where. We ended finding a guy called Ryan Hall, who runs a YouTube channel and Twitter account called, “Ryan Hall Y’all”. I don’t use this word lightly, but this guy is an absolute hero. I spent hours watching him, even into the evening after we finally came back to our house. Ryan is somewhat of a self-employed meteorologist who works with several storm chasers and some others. His setup is amazing – he’s got somewhere between 12-15 different monitors up all around him, all showing aspects of what was going on nationally with the weather. He was locked in, going hours and hours on his streams and helping to warn people about tornados that were forming in different areas. As one started to form, he would have alarms go off and say, “Alright, people in these counties it’s time to get into your safe place and don’t come out until I or the Nation Weather Service say so.” In other instances, some would call in concerned and he would show them why they were safe on the radar and tell them to go to sleep. His proactive efforts and live stream that was being followed by thousands was legitimately saving lives. As different tornados were starting to form, he was giving ample warning for people to get themselves to a safe location before they would be in any danger. Saturday was even more stressful for us because one of the tornados that hit the Huntsville, Alabama area broke apart only a matter of a few miles away from where my sister & brother-in-law live. We praise God that they are safe, and all the while we were tuned into Ryan Hall and keeping them updated with what he was sharing. I’m so grateful for guys like him, because on account of his efforts, there is no telling how many lives were saved because he sounded the alarm for people to seek shelter before the storm.
As we sat watching his livestream on our sofa, relieved to hear that our family in Huntsville was safe, I couldn’t help but see the parallel between what Ryan was doing and what God called the prophet Ezekiel to do. If you would, consider the text of Ezekiel 3:16-21, “And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.” You see, Ryan was acting as a watchman over those in the path of the storm. As danger approached, he sounded the alarm, and people got to safety. Now, if he and others like him sounded no alarms, people have been devasted by the storms. While people in the path of a tornado have the right to ignore any warnings, the point is they could not claim they weren’t warned. Well, in the same way, Ezekiel was called to be a spiritual watchman over Israel. As the prophet of God, he was to declare the will of the Lord to the people and warm them of God’s impending judgment if they did not repent from their sin. Sadly, most ignored Ezekiel’s words, and they faced the devastating judgment of God. But the point is this: they were warned. My friends, I believe we are given the same role of Ezekiel to our culture today: we are to be spiritual watchmen, and warn others of the judgement to come & the safety they can find in Jesus. Consider the following passages with me. James 5:19-20 reads, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” We find also in Romans 10:14-17, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” We have been given a mission as those who have named Christ as our Lord, and that is to ensure the spiritual safety of those around us. While not all will listen, and many will ignore the warnings, there are some who will listen and obey. There are some that will find salvation in Jesus who would not have otherwise had we not said something. I have said it many times and I will say it again, “If we don’t, who will?” To your neighbor who hasn’t heard about Jesus, if you don’t share him, who will? To your co-worker, your friend, and the list goes on. It’s up to us. In this next year, let’s vow to not be silent, but to open up our mouth and be ready always to share the good news of Jesus with a world lost in sin!
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.