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.
It absolutely baffles my mind how different real estate values are depending on where you are looking to purchase a home. I remember back many years ago when there was a church in the state of California that had reached out to Kylie and I long before we had kids, wondering if we would be interested in partnering with a church down there in the bay area. Moving to California wasn’t exactly on my radar, but we wanted to keep an open mind about it because generally your plans and God’s plans are very different. While we absolutely loved the congregation and the people there, the cost of living was something that we just couldn’t wrap our heads around. At that time, and this was five years ago, the median cost of a home in that area was $800,000. I’m not talking about anything extravagant or new either, I’m talking about a 1400 sq. foot 3 bed/2 bath home built in the 1970’s with no updates that would cost that much. In other words, we would never have been able to afford owning our own home, because a mortgage payment alone would have been around $4500 a month. Do you know what $800,000 would get you in Kentucky, especially 5 years ago? A brand-new mansion with land, that’s what! All of this was running through my mind today as Randy Ratliff, who is one of our shepherds, and I were driving around town and doing some visiting. Randy brought up a story that I just had to look up to believe about an 80 year old man who recently sold a home he owned in South Pasadena, California – just outside of Los Angeles. He purchased the home in 1983 for $155,000, nearly 40 years ago. As you know, home values in California, especially Southern California, have just skyrocketed. His home was nothing extravagant. It was a 1922 square foot home with a two-car detached garage. However, it had a dated kitchen and only one bathroom to serve 3 bedrooms. What do you think a house like this would hit the market for? Even with the issues, given inflation over 40 years, maybe $275,000? Try $1.3 million dollars. Yes, you heard me right, but that’s not the most shocking part of the story. This modest home had over 400 visitors that dropped by the open house. Within a matter of just a day, they had 60 offers to purchase the home – every single one of them was a cash offer with no financing. 60 people were willing to pay over a million dollars in cash to purchase this home. But wait, there’s more. 8 of those 60 offers were not just above asking price, but offered well over $2 million dollars! The winning bid ended being $2.5 million dollars cash to purchase this home, which served as a rental property, for this 80 year old man. Now, I know what you’re thinking…why didn’t we all buy property in Southern California 40 years ago? While you sit there thinking about shoulda, coulda, woulda – I want you to ask this question: why? Why would someone pay that much money for this home? What gives a house that much value? Obviously, it’s not how new it is, or the square footage that drove it’s value up to double the listing price, which was already insane – so what? The answer: location. Apparently, homes do not go up for sale often in South Pasadena. According to Los Angeles Times, “South Pasadena has a throwback, small-town vibe. The public schools are among the best in the region, the crime rate is low, people can walk places and the Metro Gold Line runs through town.” These are all very appealing in Southern California, a place that is often know for its big city bustle, high crime rate, education challenges, and lengthy commute times. To have a home within the proximity to the big city, but in your own little private small town area apparently to at least 60 people was worth it.
As I contemplated this driving around Danville and wondering what each home I passed would go for in Southern California, I started to contemplate what exactly it is that gives our heavenly home such great value? To answer this question, we have to begin at the same place as this story did – an asking price. Obviously, we know that grace is free, but it’s not cheap. That sounds like a paradox, but I think that most of us understand what this means. Salvation and hope of our eternal home in heaven is offered to us freely in Jesus Christ, but discipleship to Jesus comes at a great cost. In Luke 14:26-33 we read, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” There is nothing that can take precedence over our discipleship to Jesus. We must we willing to leave behind anything and anyone who stands in the way of our commitment to Christ. That is a very high asking price. And yet, as disciples of Jesus – we should stand willing and ready to forsake all in pursuit of him. Paul the apostle would even say that he counted all things as rubbish in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus. But why? What makes heaven so valuable and special? What would make someone willing to give up their life here for the life thereafter? The answer is not about streets of gold of pearly gates, it has everything to do with one thing: location. Consider the following passages together with me. First is again Paul’s words in Philippians, this time in chapter 1, vv. 21-23, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. I am torn between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ—which is far better—” What makes leaving this earth and going to his heavenly home far better? Paul says it was one thing: being with the Lord. It was his proximity to Jesus. Notice also the beautiful words of Revelation 21:1-3, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.” What is going to make heaven so special? So worth it? So far infinitely greater than anything here on this earth? Is it not this: that we will be together, forever, with our God? We will be his people, and he will dwell with us! I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of eternal home that I couldn’t put a price on. There’s a lot of things I look forward to in life, but there is nothing more that I look forward to than living together with Jesus.
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.
