Live Free with Josh Howerton - Fruit That Really Matters | Ep. 39 | Thursday March 30, 2023

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

Jesus is strong, wise, courageous, loving, powerful, and good—He’s the life-giving vine and you are the branch. The good news? As long as you, the branch, are connected to Jesus, the vine, it will be evident that the fruit of your life is from Him. In today’s episode, Pastor Mike talks about the transformation you’ll see as you put this into practice. It’s a lesson you’ll want to take to heart! 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. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Daily Drive podcast where we're just hanging in God's Word for a few minutes every day. And we're just asking him to stick some wisdom and truth and encouragement and hope in our hearts. My name is Mike Bro, and I'm super grateful to be able to do this and super grateful for you.

We're walking verse by verse through a little letter tucked in the back of the New Testament called Philippians. And we are in chapter one. And we left off at verse number nine yesterday. So if you got a Bible, check it out. And let's just pick it up there. The author of this letter is a guy named Paul, and he writes to all these brand new Jesus followers in the city of Philippi.

He expresses profound gratitude for them, and then he tells them this in verse 9. I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that will keep on growing and knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and bluish. blameless lives until the day of Christ's return. You know, I love how he ties love with understanding what really matters in your life. Because what really matters is that you and I overflow more and

more with love. You know, Jesus gave us all this command. He said, love is I've loved you. And when we focus on doing that, letting the love that we have received from him overflow from us onto other people, we continue to grow in things, as Paul puts it, that really matters. When you begin to see the world and other people, through the grace-filled eyes of Jesus, your perspective changes. What used to matter doesn't matter so much anymore. And what used to not matter to you matters now in a very significant way. You know, I've been nearsighted since around sixth grade.

Any glasses wearing people out there, any contact wears? I started wearing glasses in the sixth grade. I remember I was playing baseball and was like, oh, my goodness, that's what the ball looks like. So it was really helpful for me to wear glasses. Then later on, I got contact lenses. And then about, it's been 15 years now, I got LASIC surgery. It totally corrected. My, they call it myopia.

I can read license plates from like three miles away now. It's incredible. Not really, but my up-close vision is getting worse because I'm getting old. But however, I still experience a little, spiritual myopia, a little spiritual near-sightedness from time to time, where as long as my life is up close and all about me, I can see it clearly. But those in the distance, like their needs, their pain, their issues, they can just stay foggy. Because as long as I can see my life clearly, that's all that really matters. I mean, come on, who needs a worldview anyway? Who needs to think

about global poverty and world hunger and world natural disasters and racial reconciliation. They got their problems. I got mine, right? And through the years, I've had to ask God do some LASIC on the eyes of my heart and help me see the way Jesus sees so I can see what really matters. Paul continues his prayer for them and for us in verse 11. He says, may you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation? the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ,

for this will bring much glory and praise to God. You know, this made me think of what Jesus told us. It's over in the Gospels in John chapter 15 where Jesus said, he said, I want you to remain in me. And if you do that, I'll remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine. And you can't be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine, and you're the branches.

and those who remain in me and I and them will produce much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. And I think Paul is, as Paul is writing here, he's reminding us of Jesus' words. He said, listen, if you want to live with power, if you want to live with a sense of completeness, a sense of purpose, a sense of deep satisfaction, if you want to produce a life, a life that leaves a legacy of love, things that really matter, if you want to live life to the full, then you've got to like keep the remain thing, the main thing. Now, the word, when Jesus said, remain in me, the Greek word for that means to stay, abide,

dwell, live, or establish a permanent residence. So to remain in Jesus, to stay, abide, dwell, live in the one who is stronger than we are, better than we are, wiser than we are, more loving, more courageous, more powerful, more good, more gentle, more faithful, more kind than we are. He is that life-giving vine, and we are the branches. And here's a freeing thing. The job of the branch is not to produce fruit. The job of the branch is to stay connected to the vine.

And if that branch does, a bunch of fruit, fruit that really matters, is guaranteed to every branch that does that singular job. So my prayer for you today, for me today, is that we would overflow more and more with the love of Jesus, for that's what really matters. live in the awareness of his presence with you today, in you today. See the world through his eyes today and ask God to put somebody in your path today that could use a touch from him.

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 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.