Live Free with Josh Howerton - God's Transformative Presence | Ep. 136 | Monday August 14, 2023

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Navigating life can be a challenging journey, and sometimes we need a little help finding our way. That's where the power of God's presence comes in. By being guided through His word and the presence of His Spirit, we can make choices that align with our passions and purpose. 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, welcome to the Daily Drive. I'm Mike Bro, and I'm so excited to be jumping back into our discussion about how God leads us. And let me just pause and say how grateful I am for the team that makes this happen. I am not very tech savvy, so I'm super grateful for those that enable you just to click and listen.

And grateful for all of you who share this podcast with friends. You know, a lot of us are relying on those GPS apps like Waze when we're driving. my wife laughs about how she is directionally challenged, and she and Siri, they road trip together all the time. I mean, every time she leaves the house, I'm asking, you got your phone, don't you? Put the address in, and I text her, did you make it? Because she's a little directionally challenged.

Actually, we all are little directionally challenged, and we can use some help navigating this thing called life. So we've been talking about how God leads us to the right places as he is molding us into the right kind of people. Last episode we talked about how God guides us through His Word. When we're seeking some directions, sometimes we find that he's already given it in His Word. And as we're out there pursuing the passions he's placed in our heart, we can run everything through the filter of His Word.

And when we do, we find it becomes like the Way's app, or like the Psalm writer said, it's a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Let me talk about a second way that God leads, and that is by the presence of His Spirit. Not only has he given us his word to lead us, he has given us the counsel of himself. He's given us the presence of his person to walk with us daily, and his presence is an incredibly guiding factor. You know, the presence of people has an impact on us. When the teacher is in the room, we just behave better. When the coach is at practice, we try harder. When the CEO of the company is visiting our workplace, we tend to straighten up our desk. Just their presence and their person

influences us. It's amazing how this works. I was playing golf one time. I was just going to play by myself, and I got hooked up with three other guys so they got to make a foursome at the course. And I didn't know these guys at all, and they were really, really bad golfers with very short tempers. I mean, they were throwing clubs and banging the ground with their club, and they were cussing a blue streak. It was some of the most creative cussing I've ever experienced in my life. And we got on about the fourth hole. We're standing there waiting on the group in front of us, and one of them turns to me and says, So what do you do? It was like, oh, man.

Well, actually, I'm a pastor of a church. Oh, it was the next shot the guy hit. It was a worm burner, and he got ready to throw his club and cussed. He went, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. It was so funny. My person began to influence their behavior. Hey, what if Jesus dropped in at school and work and home on the course? What if Jesus wanted to go along with you to a certain party?

Would that have an impact? His very person would influence the choices that you make. And one of the wonderful things about the counsel of God's spirit is that he is with us every day, all day. Jesus said this about him, but when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. His person will guide you. into all truth. And for every follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is not just with you. He takes up

residence in you, producing things like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and so on. He speaks deep into your heart, sometimes convicting you, sometimes challenging you, encouraging you, comforting you, and always leading you, always prompting you to do the right thing and the little things all day long. He leads us gently saying, come on, you're getting overheated here, walk away from this argument, come back when you cool down. He prompts us saying, pull over. Help her change that tire. He speaks, you got the money.

Help that family out. He leads us. Come on, you need to forgive your dad. He gently encourages. That's three days you've eaten a meal without purging. I'm so proud of you. Let's go for four. He guides us and leads us all day long if we'll listen.

And if we will listen and follow, he will lead us to people, places, and adventures we never dreamed we'd get to do. You know, I never dreamed that I would get to plant a church in Las Vegas. I never dreamed I'd be in ministry, period. But that I would plant a church in Las Vegas was the furthest thing from my mind. I got a call one day from my buddy in Las Vegas named Gene Apple. And I've been friends for a while and he said, hey, we've been praying for someone to come out and plan a new church in Vegas on the other side of the valley. And your name just keeps coming up. And I'm thinking, you got the wrong number, man. There's no way I'm going to do that. We were living in Central Kentucky at the time, and I said, well,

I'll pray about it. And so my wife asked me, she said, what was that phone call about? I said, they want us to come out and plan a new church in Las Vegas, but I'm not really interested in doing that. I get up the next morning, and my wife, Debbie, is sitting at the dining room table crying. I said, what's the matter? She goes, we're moving to Vegas, Army. He said, no, we're not moving. We're not moving to Vegas. We're not going there. Well, we went to look at it. anyway and felt like, well, we at least owe it to ourselves to do that. So we went out and it was just overwhelming that the Holy Spirit was speaking to both of us. We stood up on a hill overlooking the entire Vegas Valley. It's looking at all the lights and there are millions and

millions of lights in the Vegas Valley. It felt like God was speaking deep to our soul saying, see those lights over there? They represent families that are falling apart. See those lights that represent people that are in the grip of addictions. See those lights over there, they represent people that are just hopeless right now. And I looked at Debbie and she looked at me, and we had this overwhelming sense of him speaking to both of us at the same time saying, trust me, follow me. And I'm crying now, looking at her and go, we're moving here, aren't we?

She goes, yeah. It's one of the greatest adventures of our life. See, I believe living in the awareness of his presence has been the single most transformative thing of my life to listen to him daily and follow his promptings has led me to places and people and passions that I didn't even know existed in me. One of the great benefits of being aware of his presence

is that his person influences the choices that we make daily as we pursue the passions that he's put in our heart. And some of the things that you think are passions that God has put in your heart. Maybe it won't be so much of a passion when you realize that Jesus is walking right with you. You're able to discern, oh, if he can't go this direction with me, then that's not the direction I need to go.

He leads us through his spirit. He leads us through the presence of his person all day, every day. So I encourage you to listen well today and just follow his promptings to do good, and you'll be surprised at where you end up. 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. Church slash Daily Drive.