Live Free with Josh Howerton - It All Comes Down to *With* | Ep. 14 | Thursday February 23, 2023

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

If you’re going to walk in a new direction this year, try getting some walking partners. Having someone to do life with makes all the difference in the steps you take! This episode breaks down how to take a leap of faith into friendships that will change your life and last a lifetime.  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, everybody. Thanks for tuning in today. My name is Mike Bro and honor just to spend a few minutes with you today. And we've been talking about walking a new direction this year. And this whole week we've been focused on finding some great people to walk with. And this has been our key walk this way verse this week. Proverbs 1320. Whoever walks with the wise will become wise. Whoever walks with fools will suffer harm. We learned the value of friendship early on, don't we? And I had so many guys in my neighborhood growing up. I didn't have any brothers and sisters. I was an only kid, which probably explains a lot about me.

But there's a bunch of guys in my neighborhood that were all the same age. And, man, they were like brothers to me. I had friends at school that were like brothers and sisters to me. Friendship just was so important to me growing up. You know, when you drop your kids off at school, do you think when they walk inside their greatest concern is what kind of education am I going to get today? You think they're thinking, man, I hope my teachers have the appropriate graduate degrees.

No, you know what their main concern is. Probably your main concern for them. When they walk into school, especially on that first day of school, they're wondering, will I have any friends here? When I sit down in the cafeteria with my tray, will anybody be saving a seat for me? Am I going to find somebody to play with on the playground? Like, whom am I going to invite to my birthday party? Is there anybody I'm going to be able to share my secrets with?

it all comes down to that word with. Who will share their life with me? And who would I get to share my life with? And there is so much loneliness out there today. There's a little book called The All Better Book, where children were asked to solve some of the world's biggest problems. And one of the questions posed to them was this, in a world with billions of people living in it,

How would you suggest we get rid of loneliness? Well, Kalani, age eight, said, people should find lonely people and ask them their name and address. Then ask people who aren't lonely, their name and address. When you have an even amount of each, assign lonely people and not only people together in the newspaper. That's her solution. I love this one, a nine-year-old boy named Max offered this solution.

Make a food that talks to you when you eat. For instance, it could say, how are you doing? And what happened to you today? I mean, that's brilliant. It reminds me of the guy who was sitting in a bar and he's eating pretzels. And the pretzels said to him, my, you're a handsome man. As he reached for another handful of peanuts, the peanut said, you know what? You're one of the smartest guys I've ever seen.

Well, just shocked. He looked at the bartender who said, oh, the snacks are complimentary. I'm sorry, that's so stupid. But food that talks to you, Max, that's like genius, man. One of the first songs I learned to play on a guitar was an old Beatles tune. I sat down with a book, Great Hits of the 70s. and they had like the fingering chart above the notes and stuff. So I sat down with the E minor and I started playing this song, Eleanor Rigby.

It was like, Eleanor Rigby. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I try to learn chords. But the chorus of that song was, oh, look at all the lonely people. Where do they all come from? Oh, look at all the lonely. people. Where do they all belong? Marla Paul, Chicago Tribune columnist confessed in print several years ago. She said, I'm lonely. And this loneliness I'm experiencing saddens me. How did it happen to me?

I'm 42 years old and I don't have enough friends. Is there something wrong with me? Are people just too busy for friends anymore? It seems as though every woman's friendship quota has been filled and women are no longer accepting new applicants. I think there are other women out there who don't know how lonely they are. It's easy enough to fill up each day with work, but it's not enough. Everyone needs someone. I recently read my daughter The Ugly Duckling. I felt an immediate kinship with this bird who flies from place to place looking for creatures with whom he belongs. He eventually finds them. I hope I do too. And that's from a woman's perspective. who are normally much better at connection than guys are.

Guys, can I just talk to you for a second? One study showed that almost 90% of the male population in America lacks a true friend. Now, guys may work with a bunch of other people. They may have a network of acquaintances, maybe some Facebook friends, some Twitter followers, maybe even like a few golfing buddies, but very few true friends.

And it was a good day when I realized that, first of all, I needed Jesus to be my best friend. But I also needed a little band of brothers in my life. I needed some people in my life that could help guide me, that could hold me accountable, people that could rally around me when life came at me hard. You see, I think we guys especially have a tendency to divide people into two categories, those who offer help and those who need help.

Truth is, we're both. strong men offer help, but strong men awful ask for help. They lean on God and they lean on other people. Strong men confess sin. Strong men acknowledge weakness. Strong men face their fears. Strong men invite accountability. When a man takes the risk and lets down the drawbridge to the fortress around their heart,

that's when life really starts to move for them. The very thing they've been resisting for so long is a thing that now propels them into a better life, a better story. So let me ask you again, who are you walking with? Who helps you on the path? What wise person in your life says, come on, let's keep walking this way who picks you up when you fall because we all do. Let me tell you about my guys. I got three guys in my life that have been in my life for a lot of years now, almost 30 years, and they have consistently kept me on the path. They are guys to know everything about me.

They know all my struggles. They know all my signature sins where I would have a tendency to fall if I fell hard. They hold me accountable. We text all the time, just encouraging stuff, sharing stuff. We laugh a ton.

We trash talk all the time. They're just soul brothers to me. I can't even imagine doing life without them. So I want to encourage you. Take a risk. Find some people in your life like that. You know, sign up for a group at whatever church you're a part of or grab some coffees. Take a risk.

Say, I want to go to lunch with you sometime. If you're going to walk a new direction this year, you've got to get some walking partners. And I'm praying today that you will do exactly that. Hope to see you tomorrow. 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.

For more information, visit lakepoint.comte.com slash daily drive.