Live Free with Josh Howerton - Living in the Awareness of God's Presence | Ep. 74 | Thursday May 18, 2023

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

Are you searching for a deeper connection with God? Whether you're new to Christianity or a seasoned believer, living with God can bring hope and a transformed life. Today’s episode with Pastor Mike discusses the different postures people take in their relationship with God, specifically how God wants us to live in the awareness of His presence within us rather than living for, from, under, or over Him. 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, thanks for joining us. My name is Mike Bro, and together right now on the Daily Drive, we are walking through a little book in the back of the New Testament called The Book of Colossians.

It's actually a letter written by a guy named Paul to a group of brand new Jesus followers, just encouraging them to embrace their new normal as they live for Jesus. And we're just a few episodes into it, so if you miss the last few, you can go back and catch up if you like, or just simply walking through some verses together and trying to hear and apply what God might be saying to us on a personal level. And we are toward the end of the first chapter today, and we come up on a verse that has been life-changing for me. I read a book a couple of years ago called With.

It's written by Skye Jahani, and he explores five postures that people take in a relationship with God. And we'll probably take a week later on and unpack some of those at a later podcast. But just for the day, there's a posture of life, under God, where you might have vision God as this invisible creature that's out there somewhere who is Almighty, and he's on this huge authoritative ego trip, so you do not want to tick him off. So you spin your life in this spin cycle of fear, guilt, shame, navigating the series of don't do this and don't do that.

Man, I live that way for way too many years. Then there's life over God. This is the perspective of atheism, humanism that says there is no God, we are. I call the shots, I chart the course, I make the rules, I control my destiny, I am self-sufficient, I'm my own source of truth. Then there's life from God, where we just see God as this genie in a bottle or like a divine vending machine, just punch in the right number and outcomes, whatever you want. Then there's life for God, and this one when I read the book, hit me right between the isis.

It's that posture says, I want to gain his approval, I want to give his acceptance, so just tell me, what do we need to do for him that'll make that happen? Now, you and I are supposed to make a difference in this world. We are supposed to be salt and light, but it is so easy to put the mission in place of God. And, man, I've done it. And before we know it, our mission, our calling, our gifting, our purpose, our ministry, starts becoming our God. You see, instead of life under, over, or from, or for God, God wants us to do life with Him. Just living in the awareness of the presence of God, I'm telling you, is an absolute game changer.

and that's all he's ever long for. What's to do life with you and me? You can walk each day in the awareness of God's 24-7 presence in your life. Scripture tells us he's not only with us everywhere we go, but the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence in us. You can talk to him like a friend constantly. All day long, you can lean into him as a loving father. You can know he's going to work with you.

You can know he's walking on the halls of school, riding the bus, going to practice with you. You can know that he's sitting in that icy, you waiting room with you. You can follow his wisdom down better past as he leads you through his word and through his spirit. You really can know and experience his love. And you can find your worth and identity in what he says about you. You can walk in freedom, you can walk in sobriety, you can walk in sanity, you can walk in peace and in hope. And Paul

writes to the end of chapter one, if you haven't experienced it already, you will discover that our self did not come with the power source to live that kind of life that God is promised and ordained for us to live. We need help beyond ourself. So when we come to faith in Christ, he's not only with us. Paul says he moves in us, abides in us, remains in us, to help us flourish and produce fruit in a way that we never could in our own strength. See, Jesus came to offer us much more than just a resting place in heaven when we die.

He came not only that you and I would know that when we died we'd have eternal life, but also that every day we lived on this earth, no matter what this life would throw at us, we would know that Jesus Christ would be enough, that His life would be our life. You see, the very life of the Son of God is not just with you, he is in you. So check out our verse for the day, Colossus 117.

He says, to them, the rescued ones that he talked about earlier, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles. In other words, this good news is for everybody, from every race, nation, and language, the glorious riches of this mystery. What is this mystery? He says, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, when it says the hope of glory,

some think that means the hope of heaven, and I think that's part of it. But I believe he's also talking about the hope of a lifestyle, the hope of a life change, the hope of transformation, the hope of a different way of living that reflects the light and the glory of God, the hope of flourishing, producing fruit,

and becoming God's best version of you and me, it's Christ in us is the only hope for that happening. There's no hope of me saying, come on, bro, you just got a bear down, you get try harder. You need to ply yourself. No, the hope of me ever living, a glorious, God-honoring, flourishing, fruit-producing kind of life

is Christ in me. You see, according to what Paul writes in this letter, two significant things have happened to me. God took me out of sin and darkness and put me into Jesus Christ. And if that wasn't enough, Now he's saying he took Jesus Christ and put him into me. Now I know that this old Christ in you might sign kind of strange to you.

But what we're talking about here is the supernatural presence of God's spirit living inside of us. The same spirit that pursued you day after day trying to get you to see your need for God. I'm talking about the same spirit who put people in your path that gave you hope for a different kind of life. The same spirit who gently began to convict you of your sin and your personal need. for His Savior. I'm talking about the same spirit who reveal to you that God is love and that you happen to be the main object of that love.

That same spirit is now in you. Breathing, working, stretching, teaching, molding, leading you from the inside out every day, prompting you all day long to do the right thing. And that's the hope of living the kind of life that Jesus called life to the full. And I'm learning that living in the awareness of him, not only being with me, but also,

So in me has been an absolute game-changing. So I'm praying today that if you're a follower of Jesus, that you will live in the awareness of that truth today, that he's in you all through the day. And if you're new to all this, I can't tell you how excited I am that you're tuning in because God honors those who seek after him. And I'm praying the day that you will know

how deeply God loves you and longs to do life with you. Man, hope you all have a great day. See him 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 word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.com. Thank you.