Live Free with Josh Howerton - How to Celebrate Others Without Envy | Ep. 27 | Tuesday March 14, 2023

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

In today’s envy-saturated culture, it’s easy to fall victim to the comparison trap, sometimes without even realizing it. So how do you fix that? In this episode, Pastor Mike shares how to practice gratitude in the midst of circumstances that may make it hard to be grateful at all. It’s a lesson you won’t want to miss! 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? My name is Mike, and we just spend a few minutes every day to help us all kind of navigate this journey of life together. You know, we were made to walk with God, and we started this new year hearing God say to all of us, come on, just walk this way, walk my way.

And to help us all do that, we're simply hanging in a chapter of the Bible called Romans chapter 12 every day for, I guess for as long as it takes us to get to the end of the chapter. And what we're doing, we're just taking little bite-sized nuggets so we can focus on change a little at a time. And as we've been saying, God just calls us to live distinctive lives, lives that are different, lives that are full of light and hope and peace and goodness and courage and love to be the kind of men and women that when people look at our lives, they just say, man, they're just so different. I would love to have some of whatever it is they have. So maybe we ought to just back up a little bit and get a running start today. I want to go back all the way to verse number nine.

Just read together where we've already been. Again, it's so descriptive of what being built different looks like. Paul writes these words, love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.

Be joyful in hope. Patient and affliction, faithful in prayer, share with the Lord's people who are in need, practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. And today's verse, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. What I like to do, I like to start with the back half of that verse, mourn with those who mourn. Just recently, just a few weeks ago, I went to a funeral. home for a visitation.

A 49-year-old mom lost her battle with cancer, mom of four. And whenever a young person like that passes, the line literally wrapped around the building. I mean, I stood in the line for almost two hours just to get to the front of the place to hug the family. There was incredible support there. People who showed up just to mourn with those who were mourning. I mean, you've no doubt felt that.

You've felt the warmth, right? From someone that just shows up at the ICU. waiting room to sit beside you or a friend who, you know, drives down and sit with you during a divorce proceeding or, or you had a loss of a dream and a friend showed up for you or a graveside service. It was pretty powerful to watch people this year come together when Buffalo Bill's safety, DeMarne Hamlin, collapsed on the field of a heart attack. It was people all over the world were praying for him. They were consoling his family. They were giving toward his his fundraiser to help other kids. And I can't imagine how that support.

made his family feel. We're commanded to be there for each other in times of sorrow. Paul says, I want you to mourn with those who mourn. Now, let me ask you, which one of the, do you find easier of these two things? To mourn with those who mourn or to rejoice with those who rejoice. Now, for me, it's the mourn part. I find it much easier to show up, put my arm around somebody's and, man, I'm here for you, whatever you need, I'm praying for you, I'm trying to enter into your grief.

I don't understand everything, but I'll be here for you. But don't you find it hard when your old car is falling apart and your neighbor has a brand new car, say, come over and check out my new car, and you go, oh, praise God. Or your pipes freeze and burst and your best friend just got back from Cancun and say, you want to see my pictures? Yeah, those are great. They say, wow, I got a 4.0 this semester. And you bombed the final.

You go, oh, hallelujah, sister. I say it's not easy to rejoice with those who rejoice. And just face it, we live in such an envy-saturated culture. We fall victim to the comparison trap all the time. Every time we scroll through social media, and we see everybody's highlight reels, the way they lost, you know, 30 pounds in three days, their flawless skin, their vacation pictures from Aruba,

the new truck in their driveway, their Pinterest-inspired HGTV dream home renovation, their kids all smiling in a family photo. And we start to think, man, my family stinks. I'm not rich enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not pretty enough. I'm not ripped enough.

I'm not good enough. I'm not blessed enough. And envy starts to rear its ugly head and rejoicing with them is the furthest thing from our minds. That's why maintaining the daily practice of gratitude has been so important for me. It keeps you from going down that comparison road. You start to thank God for all he's done for you. it keeps you out of that comparison trap and propels you into a place where you can authentically rejoice with those who rejoice.

You can celebrate with other people without a trace of envy. And when that happens, I'm telling you, it shows that you're just built different. So whatever this day calls for, whether it's mourning or rejoicing, let's all be sensitive to it. Let's just be there to comfort, to console, to hold, to cheer, and to celebrate each other today. Hope you 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 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.com slash daily drive. Thank you.