Live Free with Josh Howerton - Faith Like the Centurion Soldier | Ep. 419 | Thursday, September 12, 2024

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Being so focused on yourself will lead you to self-destruct. Forgiveness of sin and transformation needs a humble heart without pride. Put yourself under God’s love and authority today; you don’t have to be the one calling all the shots. God does know better, and He wants better for you. 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, what's up everybody? Hope you're having a good week. Hey, thanks for hitting up the Daily Drive every day. We just try to hang in God's word for a few minutes

and stick some truth and some hope and some wisdom in our hearts. My name is Bro, by the way, and we've been walking through an encounter found in Luke chapter 7 between Jesus and a guy who was a commander in the Roman military. And we discovered that this guy is not like a lot of Roman soldiers who occupied Israel. Most of them powered up on people and abused their authority. But this man is a really good dude. He's compassionate, he's caring, he's community-minded, and he understands real authority.

Well, he messages Jesus and ask him to come to his house and heal this servant that he cared deeply about. Then as Jesus is on his way, he sends another message saying, On second thought, you know what, you're so great. You don't even need to come to the house. I don't even deserve to have you come under my roof. And since you can do anything, Lord, all you've got to do is say the word. and my servant will be healed. And it says that Jesus was amazed, impressed,

blown away by this man's faith. And we talked yesterday about how God has always been impressed by humility. Our humility and surrender to his authority moves God to the edge of a seat. And he says, wow, now that is amazing. I thought there was an interesting contrast in what those leaders, the elders of Israel say to Jesus, and what the centurion, an outsider Roman, says to Jesus, Did you catch back in verse four how the elders of the town say to Jesus,

this man deserves to have you do this? And then in verse 6, the centurion says, without any sense of entitlement, Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you even come under a roof. One group tried to exercise their authority, and the other guys simply recognized it. And only true humility will ever allow you to see that. Philip Yancey writes in his great book, The Jesus I Never knew.

He said, Jesus never met a disease he couldn't cure. a birthed the fact he could not reverse, a demon who could not exercise. But he did meet skeptics he could not convince, and sinners he could not convert. You see, the forgiveness of sin, the transformation of a life requires an act of humility on the receiver's part. Some who heard Jesus' strongest words about grace and forgiveness, people who witnessed miraculous things in his presence still turned away unrepentant and unchanged because they were stubborn and proud and wanted to run their own life.

You see, although faith may produce, miracles? Miracles don't necessarily produce faith. Lots of people who experience the miracles of Jesus. Totally walked away from him. I mean, one time he feeds over 5,000 people by multiplying two fish and five little biscuits. He had them literally eating out of his hand.

Then he started talking about what it means to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow, what it means to count the cost, what it means to place yourself under the authority of God and submit to his leadership. They literally had their fill of miracles. And they shook their heads and walked away saying,

whoa, hey, loving the free lunch, but I'm not up for all that. Why? Because they still wanted to call their own shots. They were not willing to humble themselves, to surrender to someone else's leadership, to voluntarily place themselves under someone else's authority. And you know what? I've met a ton of people like that through the years. In fact, I used to be one of them. I was so full of pride and controlling, wanting to call my own shots, selfish thought I knew better than God, and I still have to surrender to that every day to him throughout the day in the moment so I don't fall back in those old patterns. I ask him every day to search me and drive that old nasty junk out of me. But I've known a lot of people who are so wrapped up in self that they actually became self-destructive.

And they also started destroying everybody else around them without even realizing it, or if they did realize it, they really didn't care because they were so self-absorbed. Some of you are familiar with this profound discovery in the big book from AA, which says selfishness, self-centeredness, that we think is the root of our troubles. And to get well, we had to quit playing God. From time to time, we all buck the chain of authority. I want to be God. I don't want anybody telling me what to do, telling me what's right, telling me what's wrong.

I got my hands at 10 and 2, and I got a firm grasp of the wheel of my life, and I'm going to drive it wherever I want to drive it. And we do, until the day we crash. I was talking a few weeks back with a guy who was struggling with an addiction for a lot of years. And he starts telling me, he says, Bro, I denied my problem for so long. I just kept saying, I got this. I got it under control.

I can handle it. It was such a lie. I lost everything and everyone important to me. I finally woke up, cried out to God for help. I put my life under his care and control. I started going to a recovery group, and I'm finally getting well. And then he paused, as if he was thinking back through all the pain, and he said, If only I'd have been humble sooner.

If only I'd been humble sooner. Don't let that be your regret. Humble yourself today. Quit playing God today. Put yourself under his loving authority today. Access his limitless power today. Surrender to his better wisdom and his deeper love today. He's amazed at people.

who will do that. So why not be amazing today? We'll wrap this up tomorrow. See you then. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.combe.combe.com slash daily drive. 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.