Live Free with Josh Howerton - A Holy Tailgate Party | Ep. 403 | Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Being at a tailgate is electrifying. The parking lot becomes a joy-filled community with good food, camaraderie, and people you love. The early church had a word for this, koinonia, which means fellowship or shared life. God built us and his church for this kind of community. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what's up, everybody? Thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive. I'm Mike Bro, and I cannot believe that summer is nearly over,

and school is getting ready to start, or perhaps it's already started for some of you. And I've been praying for all you students who listen to this podcast, not only that you would be a light in your school, but that you would find a network of close friends to do life with, and that your life at home would flourish with your parents, with your brothers and sisters, your grandparents,

your extended family, because we were all meant to do life together. And although there is a ton of, of research about the value of connectedness, I don't think we need a bunch of studies to show that people are pretty lonely these days. You know, I taught myself how to play guitar. I only know five chords still to this day, but one of the first songs I ever learned to play was an old Beatles song called Eleanor Rigby. You may have heard the song. Those of you are older probably know the song, but the chorus of the song went, oh, look at all the lonely people. Where do they all come

from? Oh, look at all the lonely people. Where do they all belong? There's a lot of lonely people out there these days. I know I've talked about this before on the podcast, but has anybody ever been to the Redwood National Forest? I haven't been there yet, but man, I really want to. These beautiful, massive trees, and did you know that these huge trees that soar up to 300 feet tall have a root system that only goes about five or six feet deep?

That shocked me when I read about that. And here's what's really cool about them. The redwood roots all intertwined with each other. They extend outward up to 100 feet circumference from the trunk. each tree is supported and sustained by the larger, wider system of intertwining roots from all the other trees. And that's what provides the stability and enables them the soar high into the sky. Think there might be a lesson in there for us? One of the most glaring things to come out of the past few years,

all the lockdowns and the masking up and the division of the cancel culture and isolation, is that we need each other. We need each other. We were created to do life together. That's the genius of God's design. We're supposed to see each other's smile. We're supposed to feel each other's touch. We were made to eat together and share together and laugh together and worship together

and pray together and play together and embrace each other as absolutely vital to our individual growth. God built within us a need for human connection. He wove that into the fabric of our being. He created us to be together. And he wants to be in the kitchen with us. He wants to be right in the middle of the action sitting on the, countertops eating around the table with us. I love what Dallas Willard once wrote. He said, God's aim in human history is the creation of an inclusive community of loving persons with

himself included as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant. He just wants to be in the middle of it all. Matthew once again records these significant words of Jesus in Matthew 18 when Jesus said, for where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them. I remember the first time I was invited to go tailgating before a college football game. Atmosphere was electric. Parking lot around the stadium smelled of hamburgers and brots on hundreds of charcoal grills. People were throwing football back and forth playing cornhole. They're tossing frisbee.

They're singing the school of fight song. Then once inside the stadium, man, there were high fives and chest bumps and hugs and extreme joy. And it all centered around a common love and a passion for their team. How much stronger and real and inclusive community gets when God is in the center of it? That kind of community is not seasonal. It's not based on wind-loss records or the weather. The joy doesn't come from what's on the grill or what's in the Yeti cooler. It's constant and rich and vibrant and fulfilling because it's a community

with a common purpose that goes way beyond a 16-game schedule. It's people like you and me growing together and serving together and eating together and opening up our homes and our tables and our wallets and making a difference where we live with our loving creator right in the middle of all the action. You know, a huge part of the explosion of growth in the early church was the amazing community that went on. They were around tables a lot.

And they got it from the example of Jesus. They called it Koinania or the shared life. And it was not some weird, oppressive, cultish commune, but just simply a joy-filled-together kind of place where people began to experience belonging and meaningful connection and deep friendship with God and with each other. The society of the day was one that was just full of hate and elitism and segregation and religious and political oppression.

But these followers had been around Jesus. They had seen them around tables, so they decided to do the same. Look what has written about this brand new community in Acts chapter 2, verse 42. It says this, and all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in needs. They were saying, My fridge is your fridge. They worshipped together at the temple each day. They had times of corporate worship.

They made it a priority to gather together to worship. They met in homes for the Lord's supper. When they got together, they remembered Jesus. And they shared their meals with great joy and generosity. They opened their tables. They got intentional about eating with other people, having people over, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.

And each day the Lord added to the table, their group, those who were being saved. It began to explode around tables. The authentic community was like a breath of fresh air. It was real and raw and relational. It wasn't even well organized, just kind of organic. It wasn't their marketing scheme or their intricate discipleship program. It was simply a place of joy and food and generosity.

And it was a place where you could belong. It was permeated with grace and truth and a sense of purpose and goodwill. and acceptance and honesty and vulnerability and oneness and love. And you need to be part of something like that. We all do. God created us to be together around tables, and he calls us to be like Jesus and do some missional eating where everyone is welcome.

And I hope that happens in your world today. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.church slash daily drive.

Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out.