Live Free with Josh Howerton - Devoted, Not Deformed • Pastor Carlos Erazo | Ep. 182 | Tuesday October 17, 2023

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

We are called to be devoted, not deformed. The world is trying to get us to conform to what it says is good, but which is ultimately broken. In contrast, God’s Word can transform us to be more like Jesus. Are you letting the world or the Word form you this week? Tune in as Pastor Carlos Erazo shares an impactful message. 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.compturch slash daily drive. In this week's episodes, we will be hearing from our specials. guest, Pastor Carlos Arazo. And now, let's dive in to today's devotional. Well, hey guys, welcome to our daily drive.

If we haven't met, my name is Carlos, and I get to be a part of the pastoral team here at Lake Point. And we get to hang out this week for a few minutes every day as we dive into the Word of God. And this week, we're talking about how to live devoted to Jesus in a time full of distractions. And yesterday, we learned how Jesus is calling you to be devoted, not distracted.

And today, we'll dive into this biblical truth You are called to be devoted, not deformed. Now, what do I mean by that? Let me share this real life story with you in Germany in 1933. There was a young man named Dietrich Bonhofer who was devoted to Jesus and passionate about being obedient to the calling God had for his life. Now, in Germany around that time, a powerful German political leader named Hitler was growing empowered and his movement started to get more and more momentum and popularity.

and Bonhofer started to realize that the Nazi movement was so influential in the culture that even Christians seemed to be more loyal to this political movement than to Jesus. So Bonhofer was part of this group of people called the Confessing Church and created this undergrad seminary to teach people about Jesus, devote themselves to a deeper learning of the Bible, and living out the life God calls Christians to live. And the reason he did this is because he believed that the influence, of Jesus needs to be stronger than the influence of the culture. And here's why that's important,

because whatever influences you shapes you. Whatever influences you the most will shape you the most. And another way to say this is whatever is influencing you is forming you or deforming who you are becoming. Now, the whole point to following Jesus is not casually attending a church service once a week, adding religious elements to our already busy lives or occasionally praying before a meal. No, Jesus calls for a radical surrender of your whole life to him so that you can become like him. Romans 12 too says it this way. It says, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but listen to this, be transformed. I would add here to become like Jesus by the renewing of your mind. and then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

This verse talks about two influences that in many ways are competing to form or deform who you are becoming. One, it talks about the world. Now, this refers to any way of thinking or doing things or living that is contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. And the world is looking to influence you. The world is looking for you to conform to it, conform to the most popular cultural ideology. conform to the latest trends, conform to a lifestyle beliefs and values that are different than the one Jesus calls you to live out. The world, whether you realize it or not, is affecting who you're becoming, and if that isn't to become more like Jesus, that means that the influence of this world is deforming you. Now, on the other hand, we have not the world, but the word.

And by that I mean the word of God. And the word of God is how we are formed, or as this verse puts it, transformed to become more like, Jesus. So meditating, reading, listening, soaking up our minds and souls with the Word of God is how we are changed from the inside out to become who God designed us to be, which is to be more like Jesus. Man, I love how the author Dr. Rob Reimer described it. He said, when the Holy Spirit breathes on a word in scripture, it stirs within you. This is the moment of a divine breakthrough and a deep work of transformation can begin. Every time we pick up the Bible, we are one holy spirit breath away from a fresh encounter with the living God. And so we have the influence of the

world and the influence of the word and the world will deform you to become less like Jesus and the word will form you to become more like Jesus. Which one of those are influencing you or which one of those is influencing you the most? Or let me put it this way, which one of those is, are you consuming the most? Which one of these gets more of your attention and your time and your devotion? Now, I want to get real practical here. And so think about this with me. If you spend easily two to three hours a day mindlessly scrolling on social media where people are all angry, there's people fighting amongst each other, there's stuff in there that's probably toxic for your soul, you read the latest controversy. If you spend,

around two to three hours there, and maybe only two to three minutes reading or meditating on the Word of God, which one will have the most influence on you? That's right. Clearly, the world. Now, maybe it's not social media. Maybe it's a Netflix show. Maybe it's just listening to music. Maybe it's watching pornography. Maybe it's hanging out with a specific group of friends regularly that might not be the best relationship for you. Maybe it's participating in regular conversations or gossip or whatever you're filling your mind with on a regular basis. Whatever it is that takes a majority of your time or a significant amount of your time in your week, all of those things are not just things that you consume.

Those are things that are forming or deforming who you are. And I've heard it said this way before, what you consume most is what you conform to. We cannot be a people that believe lies and then conform to truth. we should not be surprised that when we consume violence, we end up not being conformed to peace. We cannot be a people that consumes pornography and then be conformed to purity. We cannot be a people that consumes the world so much and then the word of God to be and not consume the word of God and then expect to be conformed to Jesus. Now, practically speaking, maybe that means for some of us, this is changing some of our habits. to prioritize the word over the world.

This means today maybe being more intentional with what you let your eyes see and what you let your mind be fed. What type of entertainment you're exposed to regularly and what you let your phone feed your soul on a daily basis? Somebody said this once and I thought it was just spot on. When you're on social media, you're scrolling on your feed and we check our feed, feed, feed, yet we never feel fed. And then we hit refresh, refresh, refresh, and yet we never.

feel refreshed. Maybe some of you are feeling like that today. Man, not fed, not refreshed, maybe anxious, maybe restless, maybe lacking, maybe empty. And if that's you today, man, I got some good news for you. You don't have to conform to any of those things. You can be transformed, starting today to become like Jesus as you go back to the word, back to the word, back to the word, because when the word and not the world becomes the majority of your week, your life is guaranteed, heed to change. And when you live devoted to Jesus and the word not deformed by the world, here's what happens. Look at what Romans 12 says one more time. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then you will be able to test and approve

what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Here's the result of not letting the influence of the world be stronger than the influence of the word in your life. you will discover God's will, God's desire, God's guidance, God's care, God's leading, God's spirit, and God's presence in your life, and this is good, this is pleasing, and this is perfect. You are called to be devoted, not deformed. We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays, 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.com.combe.com.