Live Free with Josh Howerton - Life in the Spin Cycle | Ep. 421 | Monday, September 16, 2024

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

A chain represents something that tightly holds onto one's life. In biblical terms, a chain is often referred to as a stronghold. When we find ourselves entangled in these chains - whether it's bitterness, anger, substance abuse, or an eating disorder - we experience a sense of being trapped in an endless spin cycle. But Jesus came to break chains. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our Church Online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. 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. Well, happy Monday, everybody. Thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive. My name is Bro, and we've been walking through some one-on-one encounters that Jesus had with various people.

And I hope these are helping you see the heartbeat that God has for people, how he longs to do life with all of us. And as we look at the way that Jesus treats people and meets them where they are, my hope is that all of us would look at Jesus and say, I want to be more like that guy. We've already seen him as the resurrection and the life. We've seen him as the living water. we felt the power of his compassionate touch. Last week, we watched him stand in amazement at the faith of a Roman commander, and today, we're going to see that Jesus is a chain breaker.

Now, when I talk about chains, I'm talking about anything that has a firm grip on a person's life, something that keeps you and me stuck, something that keeps us from experiencing true freedom. I don't know, but you might be in bondage to fear, anxiety, shame, or guilt. Or maybe it's perfectionism or codependency, or maybe some deep, deep, seeded anger that has you all locked up. Perhaps if you're honest, alcohol has become an uncontrollable problem for you. Or maybe it's drugs or gambling or some kind of eating disorder.

Perhaps you're in the grip of porn or some kind of sexual addiction. Maybe bitterness has a hold on you. You can't let go. Maybe you're experiencing what the Bible calls a stronghold. Something that dominates your thoughts, behavior, relationships, and keeps you just chained up. I got the privilege of planning the church in Las Vegas years ago. When someone in recovery walked up to me one weekend and gave me this quote-unquote love letter from his addiction, perhaps you've seen this.

It's a little lengthy, but it's really poignant. Just hang with me for a few minutes. Dear friend, I have come to visit once again. I love to see you suffer mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. I want to make you restless so you can never relax. I want to make you jumping, nervous, and anxious. I want to make you agitated and irritable so everything and everybody makes you uncomfortable. I want you to be confused and depressed so that you can't think clearly and positively.

I want you to feel guilty and remorseful for the things you've done in the past, and you'll never be able to let go of them. I want to make you angry and hateful toward the world for the way it is and the way you are. I want you to feel sorry for yourself and blame everything but me for the way things are. I want you to be deceitful and untrustworthy and to manipulate and con as many people as possible. I want to make you feel fearful and paranoid for no reason at all. I want to make you wake up all hours of the night screaming for me. You know you can't sleep without me. I'm even in your dreams.

I want to be the first thing you think about every morning and the last thing you think about before you black out. I'd rather kill you, but I'd be happy enough to put you back in the hospital, another institution or jail. But you know that I'll be waiting for you when you get out. I love to watch you slowly go insane. I can't help but sneer and chuckle when you shiver and shake when you freeze and sweat at the same time.

When you wake up with the sheets and blankets soaking wet, It's amusing to watch you ignore yourself, not eating, not sleeping, not even attending to your personal hygiene. Yes, it's amazing how much destruction I can be to your internal organs, while at the same time working on your brain, destroying it bit by bit. I deeply appreciate how much you are sacrificing for me. The countless good jobs you've given up for me. All the friends that you cared deeply for, you gave up for me. And what's more, the ones you turned yourself against because of your inexcusable actions, I'm eternally grateful, especially for the loved ones, the family that you have turned yourself against. You even threw them away from me. But do not despair, my friend.

For on me you can always depend. After you have lost all these things, you can still depend on me to take even more. You can depend on me to keep you in living hell, mind, body, and soul. For I will not be satisfied until you are dead, my friend. Forever yours. Your addiction. you might be saying oh man uh wow um honestly that's kind of right on for me i got chains yep i got chains or maybe for you you think you know my issue isn't quite that intense but it really does feel like i'm stuck like i'm trapped in this never-ending spin cycle if that more accurately describes you you might relate to the words of a guy named Paul who wrote these kind of spin cycle words in Romans Chapter 7 when he said, I don't understand myself at all. If I really want to do what's right,

but I can't. I do what I don't want to do, what I hate. I know perfectly well what I'm doing is wrong, but I can't help myself. It is sin inside of me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things. Ever felt like that? Like you're just in the spin cycle of doing what I don't want to do? I think we all can relate. And that's why we're, why, we all need a power that's stronger than ourselves. That's why we need Jesus to be a chain breaker for us. Now, I want to look this week at an encounter that Jesus has with a guy who desperately needed his chains broken.

It's found in Mark, the second book of the New Testament, Chapter 5. And like we've done for the past several weeks, I'd invite you to grab a Bible or an app you use for Bible reading. And today, just read the entire story. But let me set it up for us today, and then we'll come back tomorrow and start unpacking this tremendous story of hope. Mark 5, verse 1 begins like this. So they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the garrisons.

Jesus and its disciples, they sail across the Sea of Galilee to go to the quote-unquote other side of town, so to speak. This is outsider territory. This is known to the Jewish people as the Gentile region, the place of godlessness, the other side of the tracks, so to speak, where all, you know, the others live. Jesus has taken his guys from the safe side of the lake to the other side of the lake,

from the familiar to the unfamiliar, and I'm sure they had to be super nervous. And I love how Jesus did that to them a lot. He took them to places they would never have gone. He introduced them the people they would have never encountered. Jesus moved through his life, breaking down social barriers and racial barriers and gender barriers, economic barriers.

He broke all kinds of man-made rules of the religious, elite, touching lepers, getting down the dirt with a used and accused woman. He made lame men walk, deaf people here, blind people see. He flipped over the tables of greedy, power, hungry men, and men, and assortment of tax collectors, sheep herders, zealous fishermen, and men and women labeled by the religious community as notorious sinners. He loved all people. He had compassion on all people and his followers. They got a front row seat to it all. Now, I am not a horror movie fan? I do like suspense and mystery, but I'm not in the creepy stuff at all. When a movie starts

to head that way, I have a tendency to turn every light in the house on. I don't like it. Well, in this scene, not only are Jesus and the guys on the other side of the track, so to speak, it's sometime around midnight when they arrive. It's late, it's dark, and as soon as they step out of the boat, something very creepy happens. So we're going to hit pause. Go turn every light in the house on and read what happens. Come back tomorrow and we'll unpack it. Have a great day.

See you back tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church 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.