Live Free with Josh Howerton - Living Distinctively in Today's Culture | Ep. 68 | Wednesday May 10, 2023

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

Christians are called to live distinctive lives marked by kindness, compassion and joy right in the middle of our culture. You won’t want to miss today’s episode as Pastor Mike dives deeper into the letter of Colossians and encourages listeners not to retreat or hide their faith. Who knows, your distinctive lifestyle could be the very thing that influences others towards Christ! 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 podcast. My name is Mike, and so grateful that you're joining us from wherever you are. We're just taking a few minutes of our day and walking through a little book of the Bible called Colossians.

It's actually a letter written to a church in a smaller city called Colossi. And as we said yesterday, the theme is all about new life. And we read the first 13 verses last time we were together. And today I just want to go back and start breaking it down a little bit. There are five things in those verses that I think made this church a church. that was poised to really make a difference in the world. And I believe these are five things that make up what I would call the DNA of a dangerous church. Now when I say the word dangerous, I'm talking about a church that pushes back the darkness and floods the world with light and hope

and love. And these are five things that not only set this church in Colossi apart, but I think there are five things that ought to mark all of our lives and every other church that really wants to make a difference in this world. And the first one is seen in how Paul opens the letter by addressing them. We read this last time, how he addresses them as God's holy people in the city of Colossi. So here's the first characteristic I see. Every difference making church I know of is full of people who live distinctive lifestyles. They are, as we said in previous podcasts, they're just built different. I mean, they paddle upstream. They're weird in a good way. Their lives are so attractive that people say, whatever they got, man, like I want some of

that. So let me just give you what I think is a pretty good definition of the word that he uses here for holy. The word holy literally means to be set apart for God's exclusive use, to be set apart for God's exclusive use. Now, when you talk about holy, it's not a holier than thou attitude. It's not a, I'm better than you, not walking around like the old Saturday Night Live church lady character. I'm just a little bit superior than you. But I'm talking about men and women who just know that they've been rescued by the amazing grace of God and now are humbly and gratefully set apart for his exclusive use. Now, unfortunately, for the world we live in, many Jesus followers have confused a set apart life with a separate life. They practice social distancing for real. They say, you know what, we just should

not be in the world. Now, the Christians in Colossi, they were set apart for God's exclusive use, but they were not separate from the culture. Notice that they were in Christ, but they were also in Colosse. And, gang, we are in Christ, but we are also in our city. We are in Christ, but we are also in our local high schools, middle schools, elementary schools. We are in Christ, but we're also in our workplace. We are in Christ, but we're also in our neighborhoods, in our gyms, soccer fields, grocery stores. We are in Christ, but we are also in this world.

Now, God doesn't want us to live separated from the culture. He wants us to live distinctive lives right in the middle of the culture. Now, Scripture reminds us all the time that we are not of this world. Like we don't buy into cultural norms and the me-first mindset. We see God as our only truth source, not ourselves. We are not of this world. However, if we're going to be the salt and light that Jesus asks us to be, we have to be in this world.

Chuck Colson, a former founder of Prison Fellowship, just an awesome guy who passed away a while back, wrote in his classic book, How Now Shall We Live, which, by the way, seems as fresh today as he wrote it like decades ago. He says, turning our backs on the culture is a betrayal of our biblical mandate. Nothing could be deadlier for the church or more ill-timed. Americans are groping for something that will restore the shattered bonds of family and community, something that will make sense of life. If the church turns inward now,

if we focus only on our own needs, we will miss the opportunity to provide answers at a time when people are sensing a deep longing for meaning and order. When you and I live distinctive lives, ones that are marked with kindness, compassion, humility, passion, purpose, joy, patience, people notice, man, we really do throw a floodlight on God, the one who rescued us and changed us and forgave us and set us free.

I'm thinking of my buddy Tony that I just saw last week, actually, it came out of a very dark and dangerous lifestyle of gangs and drugs and violence. His life, I'm telling you, is so distinctive now. I'm so proud of him. You talk about a light. You talk about a guy that God has just changed from the inside out in ways that his old gang buddies and friends, They can't help but notice.

In fact, he got in a conversation the other day with an old friend from the previous gang he used to be a part of, and Tony ended up inviting him to come to church. And the guy laughed and said, no, man, I'm afraid I'd end up like you. And Tony laughed and hugged him. And this guy's been to church for the last three weeks in a row, just seeking a new life,

all because of the distinctive lifestyle of his old friend who lives a new life in the culture. So who are you going to influence? Who are you going to be close to today that could use some hope? Let your love and your light be distinctive and just see what God might do in your life and through your life today. See you back next time. 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 work. it out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.comte.