Live Free with Josh Howerton - Breaking Free From Burdens | Ep. 86 | Monday June 5, 2023

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

In today’s episode, we begin a series on the different ways of relating to God. Pastor Mike explores the first way, "Life Under God," and the weight of thinking in this manner. Rather than living under this weight, we should yoke ourselves with Jesus and find rest and joy. His yoke is easy to bear and His burden is light. 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. It is summer. And man, I love this time of year so much.

Congratulations to all you who may have graduated recently. And all you students have made it through finals and now you get a much needed break. And I can't wait for some time with family and friends doing summertime things, cookouts and, you know, swimming and going to the lake or the beach or hanging around fire pits at night or maybe you're working at a summer camp or going on a mission ship. whatever you got plan, man. I hope it's just a great summer for you. And even though your daily routine might be a little different for the next couple of months, I hope you'll continue to pursue your daily walk with God. And if tuning in here every day helps you do that,

we'll be here Monday through Friday all summer long. You know, perhaps listening to a podcast where they talk about God is kind of a new deal for you. I mean, you never dreamed you'd be listening to something like this. Well, guess what? you're not alone. That's how most of us were. In fact, the guy doing this podcast is still blown away by the fact that I'm doing this with my life. But I met Jesus years ago, and everything in my life has changed. So I can't tell you how excited and honored I am, that you are listening, and you need to

know that God honors and responds to people who will humbly search for him. I don't know, but maybe growing up, your family would show up at church only on Christmas, and maybe you would light a candle and wonder what the heck is this all about anyway? Or perhaps you've been involved in some kind of very legalistic or very toxic or even cult-like religion in the past. Or maybe you had a bad experience with a church or somebody that called themselves a Christian. Or perhaps you've even been a victim of spiritual abuse, manipulation, or you were taking advantage of in some way.

And it was all done in the name of God. Or maybe you had expectations about God that were shattered when he didn't seem to come through for you in the way you thought he should. Or maybe you're not even sure he exists. So wherever you're at and wherever you've been, I thought it just might be helpful to dive in for a few days and explore some of the things that we might have been taught about God. And maybe just maybe we can learn a few new things together,

and perhaps even more importantly, we can unlearn a few old things together. I read an awesome book a couple of years ago called With by Sky Zahani, and I would recommend it to anybody on a spiritual journey. You all remember prepositions from English class, right? You know, words like in, out before, after, around, among, those prepositions. Well, Sky, the author, takes five prepositional words. He takes under, over, from, for, and with to describe five different ways that people

relate to God and see life. So I'd like to just borrow that framework, and just unpack for the next several days at least the different postures that people like you and I take with God. And we'll just try to take one of these each day this week. And the first category or posture people take is this posture of life under God. Life under God. You know, way back in ancient times, it would believe that the universe was not governed by the laws of nature, but by the will of the gods. For instance, summer didn't come because the Earth's axis shifted so more sunlight's reach the northern hemisphere.

fall didn't come because they were, you know, ready for some football. It came because the gods willed it to come. And the gods or God were seen as very moody, very temperamental, a bit fickle. So if you offer sacrifices and perform certain rituals, perhaps, perhaps you could appease the gods or God. And if you did, you stood a much better chance at getting rain, good crops, good health, financial success, and so on. But dang, you better not get on his back. side. You know, maybe you grew up like I did, totally afraid of God. My relationship with God was like that old song by Sting. I thought God was looking at me going every breath you take,

every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you. Or like Santa, he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. That's an all of you, God. Now there is a healthy, fear of God that the Bible talks about, but that kind of fear is a term of respect and honor and worship and wonder and love and all. In fact, to be submitted under God's authority is the right order of life. To know and live like you believe that he is bigger, he is better, he's smarter, stronger, more loving than you is a great way to do your life. It's one thing to fear God in a healthy way, but quite another to be afraid of him. And this life under God,

God posture makes us afraid of him. I used to see God as this invisible creature out there somewhere who was Almighty, and he seemed to be on this huge authoritative ego trip, so I did not want to tick him off.

And I've learned that any way of relating to God predicated on fear throws you into this spin cycle of better not screw up. Oh man, I screwed up. Better hide. Better appease. Hope it's enough. Better not screw up. Oh, man. man, I screwed up, fear, hide, appease. And you spend your whole life navigating a series of

don't do this and don't do that. And instead of ever really getting to know God, who is your father, your creator, the lover of your soul, you spend a lifetime living with the insecurity that you most likely have made him mad in some way. This life under God posture dominated the Jewish culture of Jesus Day. The popular belief about God followed a simple formula, God blesses the righteous, and he curses the unrighteous. It was taught that if you obey his commands, or at least appear to, you can avoid trouble and calamity. You can amass wealth. You can get promoted.

You can find favor with God. Consequently, those who had material blessings were seen as righteous people, and those who suffered disease, disabilities, and hardships, well, they suffer because, obviously, they are sinners. There's a time recorded in John chapter 9 of the New Testament of Jesus. give sight to a man who was born blind. And it says this. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. Rabbi, his disciples, asking,

why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parent's sins? You see, that's just what they'd been taught for generations. And Jesus answers, it was not because of his sins or his parent's sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. This precious man is about to bring glory and honor to God. and Jesus heals him.

At every opportunity, Jesus, who was God, dismantled this life under God kind of thinking. Disobedience did not automatically mean calamity would fall on you and obeying all the rules and not guarantee you'd get a scholarship or your 401K would grow or you would avoid getting COVID or cancer. He would often confront the religious leaders of the day who tried to place all these heavy burdens and expectations on people's shoulders saying you better follow all these specific rules,

including the ones that we made up, especially the ones we made up, or God is going to drop the hammer on you. And the list of religious requirements the people were expected to obey in this life under God were referred to as a yoke. You know, like that heavy beam of wood placed on oxen as they plowed through life?

And I don't know, maybe you've been plowing through life too. With a heavy list of do's and don'ts, a heavy sense of worthlessness, a heavy amount of insecurity and shame. Man, I've been there. But like I said, I then met Jesus. In contrast with all these heavy burdens that the religious leaders placed on people's shoulders, check out what Jesus says. And this is going to be our verse to stick in our hearts today.

Matthew chapter 11, verse 29 and 30, Jesus says this, Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle and heart. heart and you'll find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy to bear and the burden i give you is light you see this rule keeping life under god is a heavy way to live your life it cannot give us rest it cannot give us peace it cannot sweep away our fears it cannot reconnect us with god it cannot transform us from the inside out it cannot give us tangible hope it cannot give us grace but jesus can so yoke up with him today

and find rest and joy. See you back tomorrow. 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.com. Church slash daily drive.