Live Free with Josh Howerton - Becoming God’s Children | Ep. 239 | Thursday, January 4, 2024

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Join us today as we continue looking at Jesus through the eyes of John, His disciple. Another John, John the Baptist, pointed the way to Jesus and helped people see that He is the Lamb of God. When people believe and accept that Jesus is who He says He is, they become children of God. If you choose to accept Jesus, you too can be called His. 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.combe. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. My name is Mike, and together we hang for a few minutes trying to get to know God a little better. And to do that, we are walking through the Gospel of John, the good news of Jesus written from the perspective of Jesus' closest friend, an eyewitness who was part of Jesus' small group, his inner circle. And we're still in Chapter 1.

And you're probably thinking, bro, at this rate, we'll be in John for three years. And you know what, that'd be okay. Now, I promise we're going to move along more quickly than that. But I just want us to get to know Jesus better. Like a guy named Paul writes over in Philippius chapter 3, says out of all the things I've experienced in my life, and there's been a bunch. I just want to know him.

I just want to know him. That's it. To think that God is knowable and to know that he came down to be with us and die for us so that we could be with him forever, it still blows me away. I'm so grateful for Jesus, and I'm praying that you would get to know him

and grow to love him too. I mean, he's the person I'm most admire. He's the person I most respect. He's the person I most want to be like. I mean, there is no one like him. Now, after John talks about Jesus being the eternal word, the one who created everything, the one who came down as the light of the world, he says this in verse number six. He says, God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everybody might

believe because of his testimony. Now, John himself was not the light. He was simply a witness to tell about the light. We did an entire week on John the Baptist back this past summer. You can check it out if you'd like. He was Jesus' cousin and was a very unique dude with a very unique calling. He was to get people's hearts ready for the coming of Jesus. And you can read further down in John Chapter 1 how John the Baptist humbly resisted

the whole Messiah label that people try to pin on him. He kept telling people, I'm not that guy. I'm not the promised Savior. I mean, the one coming is so much greater than me. And then when Jesus shows up on the scene one day by the Jordan River where John was baptizing, he says, look, look, there he is. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's the one I was talking about when I said, a man coming after me who is far greater than I am,

for he existed long before me. There he is. John, the writer of this gospel, says John the Baptist pointed to the light, but he wasn't the light. Verse 9, the one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone. He was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. Man, I think verse 10 is a sad commentary. It was kind of heartbreaking, actually, to think that no one knows who you are.

John writes in verse 11, he came to his own people, the ones he chose, the ones he delivered, the ones he freed, sustained throughout all these centuries. And even they rejected him. in verse 12, but to all who believed him, to all who accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become the children of God. And it is such a cool verse. You know, contrary to what some say, we are not all quote unquote children of God. Now we are all made in his image and we are all

deeply loved by him and we are all the pursuit of his relentless grace. But according to John and others in Scripture, child of God is something we become. Did you catch the little equation in that verse? Believe plus accept equals become. It is by believing that Jesus is the son of God and accepting him as the forgiver of your sin and the leader of your life, that we become the children of God. And this is for anyone and everyone who will believe. Remember how John writes at the very end of his gospel, where he says, there's so much more I could write. They're like countless stories about Jesus. I can't put them all in one book, but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

If you never have. Why not today? Like right now. Believe and accept and become. You can know God. You can know life. Eternal life. It's found in Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus, the one who came to light up the darkness, your darkness. So why not pray a simple genuine prayer? It's really hard to get it wrong. There's no formula. There's no face this direction and get it. this posture and recite these seven things. No, just humble yourself before God right now. Come to him in your spiritual poverty and believe and accept and become. I'll be praying for you as you do that. I'll see you back 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 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.