Live Free with Josh Howerton - Filter Your Decisions Through God's Word | Ep. 130 | Friday August 4, 2023

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Are you ready for some guidance on how to navigate the decisions in your life while walking with God? Together, let's discover one of the ways God offers direction for our journey: through the filter of His Word. The Bible is a treasure trove of hope, truth, wisdom, comfort, and challenge. As we read, study, and apply its teachings, we gain discernment for our path. When you're passionate about something and unsure whether it aligns with God's plan, run it through the filter of Scripture. You'll find that His ways are not only right but always best. 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, what's up everybody? Hope you're having a great summer. Man, summer's been so much fun for me. I've been teaching every weekend. I've been doing this podcast. I've been throwing kids in a pool, throwing frisbee on the beach, shooting hoops in the driveway, playing bad golf, doing s'm doing s'm fire pits, grilling on my blackstone, watching a grand kid walk across a graduation stage and watching another one learn how to walk. It's been an awesome summer. And I hope you're making some memories as well. And thanks for making this, just a part of the rhythm of your day. We've been talking about finding guidance for the decisions that we're faced with. We've been talking about walking with God and hearing from God.

And we've been hanging in a verse from Psalm 37 that says, Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. And we've talked about how there's an A part to that verse that says, first of all, delight yourself on the Lord. And then he will give you the desires of your heart. We can't reverse that and say, give me the desires of my heart, God, and I will be delighted. No, we come to God saying, I just want to know you.

I want to know your desires so that my desires and your desires are the same. I have desires. There are passions in me. I think you put them in there, God. So I'm just going to trust your leadership as you give me direction. I know that I can make my plans. But you, you order my steps. A couple of episodes back we threw out this principle based on that verse,

If you are pursuing his person, then go wisely pursue your passions. If you are pursuing his person, then wisely go pursue. your passions. And we introduce four ways that God provides direction for us as we are wisely pursuing those passions. Let me just give you the first one today. I have found that God gives us direction through the filter of His Word, through the filter of His Word. I mean, God's Word is a lot of things, full of hope, truth, wisdom, comfort, challenge, the way to experience real life, way to experience eternal life through Jesus Christ. And as you read it and as you study it and apply it, you will find great discernment for your journey.

The Psalm writer said in Psalm 119, verse 105, By your words, I can see where I'm going. They throw a beam of light on my dark path. You see, the Bible is far from being an antiquated piece of mythology. It is the inspired word of God. And it isn't just for weekends at church or a daily podcast. It's part of your everyday personal GPS. This is God's plan of saying to you,

while you're out there pursuing the passions of your heart, I want you to always run those passions through the filter of my word. And if they match up, then keep going. Psalm 19 says this, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight to life. You know, I read that little verse, and it just convicted me.

even though I'm a consistent Bible reader, it really made me think this week. You know, bro, you will absolutely devour game stats and articles about proposed NBA trades and sometimes just give God's word a token glance. And I thought, why am I not soaking up all I can from this book? Because look at the payoff that verse says, perfect, it's trustworthy, it's full of wisdom, discernment, insight, joy, clarity, direction. Do you need your soul revival? Quit looking around and start looking here.

It will revive your empty spirit, bring joy to your heart. it gives clear insight through this maze called life. I mean, God has given us incredible truth. He has given us his living word. So, when you have a passion, when you have a dream, when you have something in your heart that you're not sure if God is put in there for you to pursue or not, run it through the filter of his word first

and see if it matches up with what he's already said. I was talking with a friend about a new relationship he got into, and he was ready to move full steam ahead because of the passions in him. And he was definitely getting all kinds of direction from the culture. So I had to lovingly point into some things that God has said about sexual intimacy and about marriage and about treasuring people and dying to yourself. I mean, good stuff, truth, that leads us all to good and healthy places. You see, God's ways are not only right.

They're always best. And we can tell ourselves, yeah, but this is the passion of my heart that I know that God put it in there. But if it doesn't pass through the filter of his word, then that passion didn't come from him. And listen, that's not a bad thing. That's not about saying, oh, great, I knew God was going to ruin it all. Know that saying, you know, okay, I've come to know that if that isn't God's passion, that's just my misdirected passion. Because he's already given some pretty clear direction on this.

So God, I just wanted to light myself on you and in your word and in your truth, and I trust you, and I trust your wisdom. I'm just trying to wisely pursue my passion. So wisely means I'm not going to pursue that passion because it didn't make it through the filter of what you've already told me in your word. I'm so thrilled that so many of you're learning more and more about God's ways, and I would encourage you to get to know what God has already said in His Word.

And you'll get some wise counsel and direction. It really is a light for your path. Hey, yeah, we're going to push pause on all this because next week, man, we have the privilege of hearing. hearing from one of my heroes, Pastor Steve Stroop, the founding pastor of Lake Point Church, man, it is going to be a great week. So make sure you tune in and then come back the following week and we'll just pick up where we left off. Have a great day. 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, 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. Church slash daily drive.