Live Free with Josh Howerton - Don’t Fake It ‘Til You Make It | Ep. 163 | Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

In case you need to hear this today, nothing you will ever say or confess to God can surprise Him. You can stop pretending you’re perfect, stop faking your feelings, and be honest with Him. God knows us better than we know ourselves and still loves us more than we could ever understand. 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, thanks for joining the podcast today. My name is Mike Bro, and most people just call me bro. In fact, when someone's approaches, somebody says, hey, what's up, bro? I always turn my head to see if they're talking to me. We hang out here every weekday, and if this is your first time, we're just a few days away from what we've been calling a 21-day encounter with God, where we're joining with a whole bunch of people seeking after God. And God says, if you will seek me with your whole heart, you'll find me. And that's what we're all just trying to do. In recent days, we've been talking about prayer. And we focused on a little verse written by Jesus' brother, a guy named James, who was a leader in the early church. You really ought to read the little book of James.

It's so good. It takes you about 15 minutes. And you will notice as you read me, he talks about prayer, like all the way through. He says, if you lack wisdom, you ought to pray. If you're sick, you ought to pray. If you're going through a tough time, you ought to pray, even celebrate the way those tough times are growing your character. Pray, keep company with God, stay connected to the God, stay in constant communication with God. You've got unlimited minutes.

See prayers as ongoing conversation between people. two people who love each other, that's a powerful and effective way to live. So let's go back to that verse again in James 516 that we've been sharing this week. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Did you notice the power in praying for and being honest with each other? Freedom comes when you and I open up and get stuff out. I had a guy recently unloaded something on me that he'd been hiding for over two years.

And as he got honest and confessed this dark secret, you could just see healing starting to rush into his heart. And God says to us, in prayer, just bring your secrets, bring your scars, bring your honor, bring your shame, bring all of you, just lay it out, unpack your heart. Just be honest. Again, in the words of C.S. Lewis, we must lay before God what is in us, not what ought to be in us.

and God isn't shocked by anything. When we open up and get honest with him, he's not saying, Are you kidding me? When did that happen? He already knows. So being honest isn't for his sake. It's for our sake. And there is power.

And being honest. We started the week asking, why pray? Well, it's powerful and effective. It corrects your vision. It connects your heart to discover that the one you're talking to is not scowling at you, but he loves you. And another reason I pray is, because I just need a place of complete honesty.

I can truly be myself with God. I don't have to pretend that anyway. I don't have to conceal the truth. I don't have to fake it or be concerned about image management. I don't have to be on my best behavior. He is the one person I can totally be myself around. Now, I have friends that know me really well. My kids know me very well.

My wife Debbie knows me better than anybody else on the planet. And we have a relationship that's based on honesty. But she doesn't know everything about me. fact, I don't know everything about me, but God does. He knows me inside out. His light goes into the darkest crevices, exposes any dirty little secrets. Now, I'm really trying to be authentic and live with integrity and character. I really do want to be a genuine and what you see is what you get kind of guy, and I'm not trying to hide stuff. But there are things about me that you just can't see. There are things about me that I just can't see. Proverbs 2719 says, as water reflects a man's

face. So a man's heart reflects the man, so I need to know what's really true about my heart? What's the truth on the inside of me? That's why Jesus said, listen, when you pray, don't make it some street corner performance like religious people do. Go into your closet and pray. It wasn't talking about an actual walk-in closet, but going to a place of complete honesty where you can be totally real with God, where you can bring the real you, a place where you can pray that prayer from Psalm 139 that says, search me, oh God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. God, here I am in a place of complete honesty. My heart is open. My heart is exposed. No hiding. I need to know God. What's true about me? Anybody like me and you're terrible to keep in secrets?

I mean, I find it hard to hold in a surprise. I've let the cat out of the bag more than one time. If I find a cool gift, I can't wait for Christmas. I have to give it. I have to give it. in like September, I'm terrible at holding things inside. In fact, none of us are really good at it even when we think we are. I mean, whether it's a friendship or a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship or a marriage, when we hide things or conceal a bunch of secrets, it puts a huge strain on that relationship. And he has found that trying to hide stuff from God, trying to fool him, fake him out, trick him, conceal something from him is not only futile, but it hinders my relationship with him and keeps me from walking free.

As my friends in AA say, you're as sick as your secrets. And the sin you want to conceal the most is the one you need to reveal the most. And in prayer, God just wants the real you. Your authentic self, there's great freedom in bringing that person. And I pray because I need somewhere to go with my deepest secrets. I need to open up all those locked boxes of shame and regret and let someone examine the contents. I need to be completely honest with somebody,

so why not open up with the one who already knows and accepts and loves me anyway? There's an old hymn that simply says, what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege it is to carry. Everything. Everything to God and prayer.

Everything, not only my deepest secrets are wounds, I bring my joys, my gratitude, I can bring my doubts, my fears, my gripes, my complaints, my worries to God and prayer, I can be myself, bring my uniqueness, my personality, and talk to him the way I talk. I don't know about you, but sometimes I find my prayers to resemble different musical styles. Sometimes for me prayers like classical music, where my heart is swelling up like some grand overture,

thanking him for the beauty of the sunrise, the brilliance of the sunset, or the waves, crashing on the beach, the laughter of my family. Sometimes it just, prayer just swells up inside of me like some epic movie score with like strings and timpony. Other times it's like pop music. Where I'm feeling upbeat, I just want to express myself. I'm about to explode with joy. Me. Life is so good and I am so grateful. Sometimes my prayers resemble like hip-hop, where I just want to thump the bead, want to put some big old rims on my truck tires, turn the bass way up with the windows down, because that's how I roll. Crank up the music at my head, Bob, and just kind of hang out with God. Sometimes prayer is, it's in a groove like that

for me. Sometimes, oftentimes, prayer is like jazz for me. Jazz, you know, jazz and life could be pretty unpredictable. And sometimes my life is all over the place. And as a result, my prayers, they're all over the place. I mean, I'm talking to God like a man with spiritual ADHD. I got riffs going on over here. On this topic, then I'm over here. You ever pray like that? Ever pray like jazz? We're not even sure what's coming out of your mouth? It's all just improv. Other times, it's like rock. I'm focused. I'm determined, I'm persistent, there's a driving beat over and over and over, same theme, same words, repetitive, relentless. Jesus, you said, keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, well, here I am, knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.

Sometimes my prayers resemble country music. You know, country music all about the stories that we can relate to. And sometimes I'm just pouring out my story to God. There are even times when I realize that most of us are like the rest of us, we all have similar stories. and I'm feeling comfortable enough to now open up and even share some stuff with other people, even maybe pray in a group. I can actually do what James said to do and confess my sins to somebody else.

I can link arms with other people and kind of doce doo, if you will, with people of like struggle. Sometimes it's like country for me. But then there are times my prayers are filled with the rawness of the blues. If you will read through Abakic, Lamitations, Jeremiah, Job, the prayers of Jesus,

the prayers of the Psalms, Man, you can almost hear this. Dun-ton-ton-dun-dun-dun-d-d-d-tun-d-tun-tun-tun. It's blues lick as a soundtrack for some of these prayers, such as Psalm 22. My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help?

Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer every night. You hear my voice, but I find no relief. I mean, it just sounds like some kind of dun-da-da-da-da-da-da. some kind of blues lick. And you know what? That's powerful and that's effective because it's real and it's raw and it's honest.

And I'm discovering that prayer is primarily a love song. Prayer is all about his faithfulness and his righteousness and his goodness and his perfection. It's about his insatiable desire to connect with us, talk with us, be with us, comfort us, hold us, breathe life into us, lead us, empower us, use us in this world. The pray is to stay connected with the lover of your soul.

So let's do that today. 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.combe.com slash daily drive.