Live Free with Josh Howerton - Inadequacy is a Good Place to Be | Ep. 460 | Friday, November 8, 2024

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Today, we wrap up our week by looking at the birth of the church in Acts 2. These early believers lived dependently on the Lord. They knew that all they had was Him and their lives were centered around their Savior. What might someone else say is the center of your life? Is it on something temporary that will one day pass away, or is it the Creator of the universe who gave Himself up for you because of His infinite love?    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.combe. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Well, it is Friday on the Daily Drive, and I cannot wait for the weekend, as is the case most weekends. I get to teach at one of the amazing churches I regularly teach at, and I just know that God is going to ambush somebody with his grace, because he does that every time. He pursues all of us with his relentless love and his desires for everybody to come home and be with him.

My name is Bro, by the way, and we've been hanging in Chapter 2, the Book of Acts for the last few days, looking at this brand new thing called The Church. church, this new community of grateful people who had surrendered their lives to Jesus, and were following him with all that they had. Let me read again that descriptive passage of what was going on from Acts 2, 42 through 47. All the believers devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer. The deep sense of all came over them all, and the Apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

They worshipped together at the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while, praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day, the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Man, what a picture of the church. A description that led outsiders to write about the people. these Jesus followers. Man, these people love everybody. That's a pretty cool description, wouldn't you say? This new community called the Ecclesia, the called out ones, the church,

was thriving in every way. And we've been looking kind of below the surface of what their practices were to the character traits that those practices flowed from. For instance, we talked a few days ago about how they remained teachable. They stayed hungry to learn. They stayed humble, coachable. They pursued truth to build their lives upon. Yesterday we highlighted how they were vulnerable, how they lived what was called the shared life. And that word for fellowship was much deeper than just hanging out. They shared emotionally, spiritually, physically. They were kind and generous with each other and those who Jesus had referred to as the least of these.

And I believe that this very first church thrived because of this last character trait. They were dependent. They were dependent. They knew they needed the Holy Spirit. to continue to flow in them and through them in the same way it all started. They stayed desperate for him. They remembered that Jesus has stood up on the side of a hill one time and said, blessed are the poor and spirit, those who recognize their spiritual poverty,

those who live with a sense of brokenness and deep dependence upon God. So they practiced a deep dependence upon God. Jesus was not merely a spoke on the wheel of their life. Man, he was the hub. Everything else in their life revolved around him as they started. dependent upon him. I've talked before how in the early 90s, our family and a team of people were led to plant a church in Las Vegas.

It was amazing what God did. And we grew very quickly. And at the time, there was a movie running that was the sequel to that movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Anybody remember that movie with Rick Moranis, who played this nerdy scientist dad who accidentally shrinks his kids down the insect size? Well, it was a successful movie, so they had a sequel. and the sequel was called, Honey, I blew up the kids, where he does just the opposite.

And that movie was actually shot in Las Vegas. And I can remember watching this huge toddler stomping around Vegas in the movie, and I thought to myself, that's our church, because that's what we felt like. We were this big, uncoordinated baby just walking around Las Vegas. Now, we had passion, and we had focus, and we had a deep love for Jesus. But a game plan? Not so much. A clearly defined strategy? Not so much. Really smart leaders who had done this before? Not so much. What we had were lots of brand new people from every conceivable walk of life and very few longtime seasoned followers of Jesus. We had a super small staff. We had a rented YMCA in which to meet once a week. We had this old wonder if it's going to start this week, U-Haul truck in which to store all of our stuff. And one day a volunteer forgot to close the pull-down door in the back at

all the equipment got strewn all over the roadways of Las Vegas as he drove along, and all of it was gone. It was such an adventure that I'll never, ever forget. We were clumsy, we were clueless. There really were no church planting organizations to come alongside of us, no how-to manuals, no conferences to attend, just a group of passionate people who had no choice but to depend upon God. I can remember standing at the YMCA on the Saturday night before we launched the following Sunday. and we had set up some chairs for the morning, and I stood there on a makeshift stage with my wife Debbie looking out over the room, and I was completely overwhelmed. And I sighed really deeply and said, I don't know what I'm doing. And she said, good.

If we start depending on our own wisdom and strength, on our own talents, this will never make it. Inadequacy is a very good place to be. and I'm sure we did a lot of things wrong and we made our share of dumb mistakes and hasty decisions but the one thing we did get right was that we prayed and we depended upon the supernatural power of God it really was all we had

turns out it was enough and that's all they had they prayed and stayed dependent and you know what some things never change it's the key to the life of every church It's the key to your life and mine. It's the key to becoming God's best version of us.

To surrender every day to his love and leadership. To talk to him all throughout the day. They'll stay dependent upon his strength and his wisdom to keep Jesus Christ at the hub of our life. For these people, their whole life revolved around Jesus. It was all about him. What he said, what he did, how he acted, how he reacted. It was all about him.

So much so that they remembered him all the time. Did you catch how they not only hung out eating meals with each other? They also remembered the most important meal, the Lord's Supper, what he did for them on a cross. It was a crucifixion that many of them could remember watching. They may have even been in the crowd shouting, crucify him, crucify him, but now they knew that he really was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Their sins. He died so that they could be made right with God. He rose from the dead to assure anyone who was.

believed in him that they would never die but have eternal life. The reality that God so loved the world that he gave his only son completely blew them away. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus was the most important thing in their lives. It was what filled them with gratitude, joy, generosity, compassion, and awe. Guys like Peter and John, they taught these new followers about how on the night before it all went down, They were all gathered up in a borrowed upstairs room, and Jesus took some bread and broke it and told him,

Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Never forget this. Then he took a cup and lifted it up and told him, this cup represents my blood, which is poured out for the sins of many. And I'm sure the guys told them that in the moment, they all were pretty clueless as to what Jesus was talking about, but now they knew. Now they knew, and they never wanted to forget.

All of us forget stuff, right? We forget answers on a test, we forget people's names, we forget that we're supposed to pick up our kids at school, we are amazingly forgetful people, and Jesus do that over time we can forget. Our hearts could grow cold and drift, so we need a regular, vivid reminder of what he has done for us. So they regularly remembered him by participating in what we call communion. So if you're gathered with the church this weekend, you have a chance to do that, eat, drink, and remember him. or why not every time you eat or drink today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next day, and the next day, remember him. Let him be the hub of your life. Never forget what he's done. Live with gratitude. Stay teachable, vulnerable, and dependent. I'll see you back here on Monday. Hope you have an amazing weekend.

Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our Church on online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.church slash daily drive. 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.