Live Free with Josh Howerton - Mighty and Matchless God | Ep. 227 | Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Our names describe different aspects of who we are. The same thing is true about Jesus. He is our Mighty God, the Creator who spoke everything into existence. He has no rival and no equal. That means He is mighty over any difficult situation you may be facing today. 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. This Christmas, we want to invite you and your family to join us for our candlelight services on December 22nd through 24th at any of our six locations. or for church online. For more information, visit latepoint.com. slash daily drive.

And now, let's dive in to today's devotional. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Man, I just love the Christmas season. We put the tree and the decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. Not before, because that ain't right. But right after that day, we get in full on Christmas mode. I tune the stations on my XM channel. I'm a truck to three or four different Christmas music stations, I will hear, have a holly jolly

Christmas, and all I want for Christmas is you, like 500 times. But all of all the things I love about this season, and there's a whole bunch of stuff I love about this season, I love that it focuses our heart on hope. And the reason for that hope is Jesus. As we get ready to celebrate the hope, the joy, the peace, the light, the life that he brings, I thought we'd spend some time on the daily drive working through some of the titles Jesus is given in Scripture. We read this yesterday. It was written centuries before Christ's birth. Let me read it to you again, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. For, to us a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, the prince of peace.

You know, each of us have different names that describe a lot about us. For instance, the most people, I'm just bro. To many people, I'm Mike. To every teacher on the first day of school, I was Jerry. That's my first name. Michael's my middle name. To some, I'm Pastor Mike. Some guys still call me coach. My kids call me dad. My grandkids call me Papa. Debbie calls me, well, I'd rather keep that one a secret. But each name describes an aspect of who I am. And we can learn some things about God based on the different names he is called. We talked yesterday about how Jesus is a wonderful counselor. I mean his incredible listener. You can tell him anything. You can tell him everything. His heart is full of compassion and empathy. You can trust his wisdom. He knows us inside

out because he made us inside out. Plus, he's always available. You know of any other counselor with those kind of credentials. Today, let's look at the title, Mighty God. The first name in the Bible used to describe God is found in the very first sentence of the Bible. Genesis chapter 1-1, it says, In the beginning, Elohim, God created the heavens and the earth. The name Elohim appears 2,500 times in just the Old Testament, and it's plural, meaning God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. You might remember how God says in the creation story, let us make man in our own image. The first thing we learn about God is that he is a creator God, who spoke the universe into existence. The Hebrew word for create is barra, which means to create from nothing.

I had a college professor who was from Belgium, and when he used to talk about this, he would say students, God created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing. If you say, I made these cookies from scratch, do you really mean you made them from absolute scratch from nothing? No. You started with some eggs, some flour, some chocolate chips, some cinnamon, some sugar, whatever. chefs, bakers, inventors, artists, architects, engineers can make many things, but not Barra, not ex-Nahilo, not out of nothing. Scientists can combine things genetically crossbreed, even clone things, but they can't create

something out of nothing. Plus, no one can just speak things into existence. And it'd be great if you could, right? If you can look at your old junkie car in a driveway and say, let there be Mercedes. or you look at your junkie report card and say, let there be A's. But you and I can't do that. God alone is able to say, let there be light, and there was light. So out of nothing, God moved, God created, God spoke, and there was something.

That's Elohim. That's the mighty God who is lying in a manger. And listen, if God can make something from nothing, imagine what it can do for you in your life at this time. Sometimes I think we forget when we're going through a storm, we're going through a crisis, we forget how big, how powerful, how mighty, how awesome Jesus really is. I read recently that Disney is bringing back Rick Moranis to do the remake of the old movie, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, remember that movie, where he plays this nerdy inventor that comes up with a machine that can shrink things down to microscopic size and then accidentally turns in on his own kids

and has a lot of explaining to do with his wife. and thus the title, Honey, I shrunk the kids. You ever thought, man, I would love to have one of those machines? Honey, I shrunk my gut. Honey, I shrunk our mortgage. Well, ever since the beginning of time, people have been trying to shrink God down to their size

and make him smaller than it really is. Some like to say, I've got God shrunk down to a little figurine that I can set on my fireplace mantle. I got God shrunk down to a little symbol or an image that I can carry on some beads or hang on my wall where we condense God down to a little box called a church building, and God shows up and only lives inside of a building with crosses and stained glass windows.

I think sometimes we feel more comfortable, when we can shrink God down to our size and say, Honey, I shrunk our God. But, gang, that will never happen. Elohim is the most shrinkic resistance entity in the universe. He can't be reduced to a fragile figurine in a nativity set. He can't be confined to any box. He is not confined to a church building.

He can't be defined by our limited understanding, like we sometimes sing there is no rival, there is no equal, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. He is Elohim, the mighty God of all creation. One of my favorite stories about this mighty God is the time Jesus gets into a boat with his disciples after a long day of ministry. And while they make their way across the sea of Galilee, a fierce storm comes up. The wind is howling, the waves are crashing over the side of the boat. It's filling up with water.

the disciples are freaking out because some of them are experienced fishermen. They've been on the sea many, many times, and they knew. They were in big time trouble. Anybody know what Jesus is doing in this moment? Yeah, he's sleeping like a baby. Now, what are you the least cool? For me, it's when I first wake up, especially if I'm awaking out of a deep sleep. I don't know where I am.

I got drool coming out of the corner of my mouth. The one hair I got is all messed up. I'm so uncool when I first wake up. And so the guys wake Jesus up shouting, Jesus, don't you care. Come on, teacher. We're going to drown. We're going to die. You've got to do something. And Jesus gets up out of his deep sleep.

And he says to the storm, knock it off. Peace. Be still. I'm going back to bed. And the wind stops. And in an instant, the sea is like glass. And one of the cool things about this story, it says that the disciples were frightened of the storm. But after Jesus does this, it says at Mark chapter 4, verse 41, they were absolutely. terrified. Who is this? They ask each other. Even the wind and waves obey him. Who is this? He's Elohim. The mighty God who spoke all creation into existence. The one who speaks to waves and

when and they listen and obey. The one who made you. The one who loves you. The one who laid down his life so you could live forever. That is a mighty God. And that's who he is. And I'm praying you'll get to know him better this season. Have a great day walking with the one who is not only a wonderful counselor, but the mighty God who wants to do life with you. 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 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.combe.combe.com slash daily drive.