Live Free with Josh Howerton - Fertilized with Gratitude | Ep. 320 | Friday, April 26, 2024

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Are you teachable? Do you have good, receptive soil where God’s Word can take root and grow? People with good soil are humble, open, and thankful. The fruit of the Spirit can grow in good soil which then impacts everyone around. God can produce an abundant crop in us when we joyfully receive the seed of Scripture and fertilize it with gratitude. 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, happy Friday, everybody. Welcome to the Daily Drive. My name is Mike, and we've been having a springtime discussion. For the past few days, while all the trees, flowers, crops, and grass are growing, we thought we talked about a few different ways that God grows us. We've talked about pivotal circumstances, and for the past few days we've been talking about how he uses practical teaching, how God wants to plant his word and soft, fertile hearts. Jesus refers to that kind of heart as good soil. So we've been in a story in Matthew 13. that Jesus tells us. Jump back into the story. He's already talked about hard-packed soil, hearts, talked about shallow soil and hearts, talked about the kind that eventually gets choked out

by weeds. And then he says this, still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop, 160 or 30 times what was sown. And then he says this, the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man or the woman, who hears the word and understands it. They're the kind of people who produce a crop yielding 160 or 30 times what was sown. One of the things that I've always looked for in hiring people or coaching kids or even choosing close friends is their humility, their teachability, their grateful spirit. There have been times when I've questioned their competency, when I've questioned their ability to do the job, and my wife Debbie will say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know what?

They got good soil. They got good soil. You could just tell. Debbie often gives this advice to young girls who are starting to date. She'll say, look for good soil. Don't look for a soulmate. Look for a soil mate. Make sure they have a humble, teachable, grateful heart.

Because, gang, when we are teachable, when we're humble, when we're open, when we're receptive, then and only then can God's word take root in us and start to grow us in amazing ways. I love this scripture from Isaiah 66. This is God talking. He says, this is the one I esteem. He who is humble and contrite and. in spirit and trembles at my word. God says I'm impressed with humble people. They're good soil. They're receptive of what my word can do in their lives. Humble, coachable, teachable people

will flourish. Psalm 1 says this. They delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on a day and night. They're like trees planted along the riverbank, burying fruit in each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all that they do. When you and I are humble and were open and we let God's word take root in us, when we are consistently planting ourselves by the river of life, drawing up nourishment from him, man, we grow. You know, I've probably said it before on this podcast, and I'll probably say it again, but fruit grows in soil that has been cultivated by humility and fertilized with gratitude. Fruit grows in soil that has been cultivated by humility and fertilized with gratitude.

when our relationship with God is intimate and organic, when we stay dependent and grateful for his goodness and grace, the fruit in our life starts to take off. It begins to overflow. You can't find enough bushel baskets to handle it all. And I'm talking about fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, things we could never manufacture on our own. It's this inside-out miracle grow kind of thing.

We begin to have a vibrant faith. that trades sight for trust. It trades self-absorption for selfless service, apathy for adventure, anxiety for peace, comfort for compassion, entitlement for gratitude, envy for contentment,

and tight control for deep dependence upon God. When God's word gets planted in good soil, a heart that's been cultivated by humility and fertilized with gratitude, when you let it go deep, when you actually start applying it and live in it, that's when you begin to grow. I mean really grow. and God loves growing things, especially us.

Again, Paul writes in Colossus 2.7, Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. My buddy, Paul, not the Paul that wrote that, my former neighbor, Paul. God crossed our past, and both of us have been richer for it,

but he had to spend three years in a minimum security prison called Sandstone. He had never really opened a Bible in his life, and we gave him a new study bottle to take with him, and he began to devour it, and what God did, and is still doing in Paul's life through his word, is amazing. I saved a letter that he wrote me while he was there, and he told me I could share it. He says this, Dear Mike, I'm still a work in progress, but God has brought me through the fire to make me pure. He's refined me like silver and purified me like gold, Zechariah 13-9. I am so grateful that God continued to pursue me.

that he used others ahead of you to spread the seed, much like the parable of the four soils. It took an awful lot of seed before it landed on a little bit of good soil I had left, but man, that seed is taken root, and my love of Jesus shows of my face. During my early morning prayer and meditation times, I often find myself crying, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy and appreciation.

I've learned through my Bible study that through my pain and suffering, God has been right here with me, comforting me. And just because he comforts me, my troubles may not go away, but I've learned that God's comfort means receiving strength, encouragement, and hope while I'm still in this season of life. I cannot begin to tell you how much I've grown over the last 18 months. I've found myself comforting others here in prison, as well as through many letters to those back home.

Second Corinthians 1-4 says that while God has comforted me, I'm to comfort others. Guess it all boils down to Mark 12, 29, through 31, love God, love people. My Bible study has me finished with the Old Testament, as well as the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. What a wonderful journey in the best book I've ever read. I'm anxious to get to the book of Revelation so I can start at the beginning again. I can't wait to show you my Bible what was brand new the day I arrived at Sandstone. Now it looks like it has been used for 20 years.

Every page is marked up. Every time I reread a passage gets marked up some more. And the more I read, the more I understand, and the more I know how much God loves. me, and all of us. The seed is life-changing, gang. So let's be good soil. Let's be fertile soil. The kind of soil that is cultivated by humility and fertilized with gratitude. God will grow good stuff and that kind of heart. Hope you have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time.

For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.