S5 E38- Chopped!

One of my runs in a fantasy football league finally came to an end after 14 weeks. This is a "Chopped!" league - which means you win or you go home. If you lose even once by having the lowest score in the league, you're done for the season. No second chances. No next week. No chance for redemption. 

How blessed are we that we do not serve a "one and done" kind of a God? If we were "chopped" never to be given another chance at redemption when we failed, how far would have of us ever made it in this life? As it stands, so long as we turn back to God, he's always willing to give us grace and give us another chance. 

#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 5 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. Let’s grow together! 

As they say, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! I really do believe that for a lot of reasons. Yes, I love the holiday’s and all the festivities surrounding them, of course, but it’s more than that. As a sports fan, especially as a football fan, this is what it all comes down to at the end of the year: the playoffs. Luckily for me, both of my teams at both the collegiate and professional level are playoff locks. The Ducks will play in the first round of the playoffs next weekend for the College Football Playoff, and the Chargers will likely secure their spot in the playoffs with one more win this season for the NFL. While things are looking up in those particular areas for me, sadly the same cannot be said for my fantasy football endeavors. If you remember way back months ago, I talked about how many leagues I had joined this year – 11 to be exact! It’s been a lot of fun to have such a vast difference between how each league is run and how different my lineups have been in each league. But fun is about all I’ve had, as there is little to no hope of much success this year to win any of my leagues. In fact, I am only qualified to play in the fantasy playoffs in 2 of my leagues, and I’m not projected to get very far in either of those either. I haven’t even mentioned the worst part yet. I said I was in 11 leagues earlier…well, now I’m in 10, as my run in one of my favorite leagues finally came to an end this last week. 

This league that I was a part of is called a “Chopped” league – and with good reason. In this kind of format, you have a large league size – 18 teams to be exact! Because of this, your lineup is already painfully thin to start the year, and you cannot afford any injuries or suspensions from your players. But that’s not the hardest part – every week, the team with the lowest overall score is eliminated for the rest of the year – and they get “chopped”.   All of the eliminated team’s players then go to the waiver wire and are up for grabs by the rest of the league. The league truly is win or go home. If you lose once, you’re done for the rest of the year. Well, over the course of the season I have had some very close calls – but I’ve never had the overall lowest score. That was until this last week. I made it to week 14, where there were only 5 of us left. At this point all of us had been able to build solid line-ups from picking up past players of eliminated teams, so it was truly anyone’s game when you get to this point in the season in a league like this. However, my star players just didn’t show up. Rashee Rice, DeVante Adams and Jamaar Chase were all held to 5 or less catches and no touchdowns. Kenneth Walker III accumulated only a measly 29 yards on the ground over 10 carries and also no touchdowns. At the end of the day, it was enough to sink me. I finished after Monday night with the least amount of points of other remaining four teams…and I was chopped. No second chances, no opportunity for redemption, no do-overs. When you’re out, you’re out for good. There is no coming back. 

It's amazing that even something as silly and unimportant as a fantasy football league can teach us one of the most important lessons that we can come to know about the nature of God. We do not serve a God who gives no second chances, no opportunity for redemption, and no hope of ever returning to him when we wander. When the Lord reveals his glory to Moses in Exodus 34, this is what he reveals concerning his nature starting in vv. 6, “The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.” We see balance in the nature of God here – both justice and mercy, and we must never overlook that. Those who continue in sin will not go unpunished, there is a just time and place for the ungodly to be…well, chopped. But that is not the sole nature of God. If it were, all of us would be doomed because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23). To cite my favorite music artist Gregory Alan Isakov, “If it weren’t for second chances, we’d all be alone.” 

And yet God is not just a God of justice and righteousness, but also lovingkindness. Notice how God reveals his nature: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, full of love and forgiveness. God is not only willing to forgive, but he is quick and eager to do so. What God desires more than anything is reconciliation – to dwell in unity with man if we are willing to repent and turn back to him. This is what the Lord revealed to Solomon at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 7:14-16, “and if my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place. And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.” If we were given no second chances, no opportunity to repent, how far in this life would you have made it before you were “chopped” and permanently separated from God? If we’re being honest and truthful, none of us would have made it very far at all. And yet here we stand in fellowship and in perfect harmony with God – not because of our perfection, but because of his marvelous grace. When we are willing to humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and turn away from the world we once walked in, God is willing and ready and able to restore us, heal us, and forgive us every single time. We don’t serve a one and done God. We serve a God who is faithful and righteous to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness when we confess our sinfulness to him (see 1 John 1). 

My friends, God is always willing to forgive if we are willing to turn and come back to him. At no point are you too far gone. At no point have you run out of second chances. At no point will God permanently cut you off from him if you are willing to turn back to him. Let us conclude with Isaiah 30:18, “Therefore the Lord is waiting to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion, for the Lord is a just God. All who wait patiently for him are happy.”

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 5 episode 38 – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped each Friday, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating or most importantly share it with someone else – it would help to reach others that I never could alone.  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.