Live Free with Josh Howerton - Attaching a High Price Tag to Others | Ep. 48 | Wednesday April 12, 2023

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

What does it look like to have the same attitude, mindset, and radical approach that Jesus had? Today, Pastor Mike describes how to pursue those things as you live your new life in Christ, with humility being at the root of all your actions. After listening to this Scripture-filled episode, you’ll be ready to take on the challenge that wraps it all up! 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, welcome to the Daily Drive podcast. You might be driving to work or driving to school or he might be taking a walk or working out or sipping coffee. Maybe you even get ready for bed.

I don't know where we are. I really appreciate to join this today. And we're walking through a little book in the back of the New Testament called Philippians. It's actually a letter written by a guy named Paul who was chosen by God to spread the good news of Jesus around the known world. And the city of Philippi was part of that world he lived in. And so he and a team of people planted a church there. You can read about the very cool beginnings of it in Acts chapter 16. And it's obvious how much affection Paul has for the people in this church.

We worked through the first chapter last week where he expressed his deep gratitude for them. And I love how even though it was written in the first century, it feels like we just received this letter last week. Because it's so relevant and so fresh. And I think no more relative and fresh than where we land today. In our last episode, we talked about the dangers of pride, that overinflated sense of self-apportens, self-sufficiency, self-absorption, ego, which we said stands for edging God out. For way too long in my life, man, I edge God out. And when you edge him out, you have no one but yourself to be God. And I did a terrible job with playing God.

And I had to start laying my ego on the altar every day, and I'm learning that it really is a daily thing. It is a daily resurrender to that. My buddy Keith was starting recovery, and I would text him every day to say, you know, day three, you know, day 17, day 47, you know, all the way through. And I told him to say, every day, man, you just got to resurrender your life to the power of God. You got to humble yourself every single day. And so he called me one day and said, I've been doing something. You might think this is stupid.

But I set my alarm on my phone every night to wake up in the morning. And so I've been taking my phone and putting it into my slippers, then sliding my slippers way under the bed so that when it goes off in the morning, the first thing I have to do is get down on my knees, reach under the bed, grab my phone, and turn it off. And while I'm down there, I just resurrender my life to God again. And I said, dude, that is not stupid.

That's a brilliant idea, man. I'm going to tell everybody to do that, to start their day that way. In the big book in AA, it says, we discovered that selfishness, yes, self-centeredness, that was the root of our problems. And again, well, we had to quit playing God. Well, we left off yesterday with a verse that I told you I've encouraged every couple I've ever married to memorize. It's kind of the golden rule for relationships. It's found in chapter 2 of Philippians, verse 3 and 4, and it says, don't be selfish.

Don't try to impress others. Be humble. Thinking of others is better than yourselves. don't look not only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too. Now, I'm not a good counselor, even though I did major in that in grad school. I just don't have that gift mix. I found that out quickly. I am way too, you know, cut to the chase kind of person when I do counseling.

I remember a time when we were planning a new church in Las Vegas, a young couple came to me and asked if I would do some marriage counseling with them. I said, and I've told them, so I'm not very good at that, and I will refer you to someone else. but I'm happy to listen to you as a friend. So we set up a time. They came to my office and they started talking about their problems. I let them talk for about 15 minutes. And then I put up my hand with a universal timeout signal. I said, hang on a second.

Can I just cut to the chase for you, y'all? I looked at the guy and I said, dude, you're selfish. Then I looked at her and said, and you're selfish. Well, I thought the guy was going to come over the desk at me, got red-faced angry. But then after about 30 seconds of stewing, he says,

you're right I am that's what it always comes down to it comes down to me my way and she said no I'm the one who's selfish and they began to apologize of each other and I heard from them not long ago and we all laughed about that quote unquote counseling appointment and they told me they just celebrated

35 years of marriage now like I said I'm a terrible counselor but honestly a lot of conflict usually does come back to selfishness so Paul writes don't be selfish don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others better than yourself, don't look out for only your own interests, but take an interest in others

as well. And I love the way Paul doesn't just throw out commands like this and leave us hanging. If you were with us for Romans 12 episodes, you'll remember how he told us that we should live a distinctive kind of life. But then he goes on to describe what that kind of life actually looks like. And he does the same thing here. He says, okay, selfishness. Maybe an example will help.

let's take Jesus, for instance. So I want to hang here for a few episodes and unpack these amazing verses. This section actually became one of the favorite worship songs of the church, just a reminder to lay their ego on the altar and embrace the same kind of radical humility that their leader Jesus did. So Paul starts this section by saying, There's no one better to learn this kind of humility I'm talking about than Jesus. And here's how you start doing that.

Verse 5, you must have the same attitude. that Christ Jesus had. This is how you and I begin to lay our ego on the altar. We choose, we choose, to embrace the same radical approach to humility that Jesus chose, and he chose it every day. You decide to walk through life with the same mindset of Jesus. You roll out of bed every day, maybe to retrieve your slippers, and you get a conscious, you make a conscious choice,

you ask the Holy Spirit to remind you throughout the day that you are not the center of the universe. You say today in regard to my own self-importance, today in regard to my ego, I choose, I choose to have the same mindset of Jesus, to see the needs of other people, to honor everybody, to attach a high price tag to everyone I encountered today to put people first like he did throughout this day. In the next few days, we're going to unpack this whole amazing section. But let's just stop there for today with that choose to have the same mindset of Christ Jesus, because it is a choice. to humble yourself every day, a decision to put your ego on the altar every day,

to embrace the radical humility of Jesus to quit playing God and re-surrender to his better leadership every day. And I pray that today we will all make that choice. See you next time. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. 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? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.