Live Free with Josh Howerton - Missing the True Mission | Ep. 89 | Thursday June 8, 2023

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

With a "Life For God" mentality, we can quickly focus more on scoring points or winning at Bible Jeopardy than the true gift of getting to know God. Becoming so focused on mission and ministry can turn good things into a god. Pastor Mike reminds us today that, as believers, our worth is in the faithful work of Christ, not in working for God. 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, what's up everybody? Thanks for joining the Daily Drive podcast where we just try to unpack some wisdom, some truth, some hope from God's Word, just a little bit each weekday. My name is Mike Pro.

And man, I'm so honored you spent a few minutes with us today. And the goal of being in God's Word is not to score some points from him or to be able to smoke somebody in the game of Bible Jeopardy. It's to get to know him. And that's simply what we're trying to do. In the last few days, we've been talking about five postures that people take in relating to God. And we're using five propositions to describe those different ways. And we got this framework from a book, an excellent book called With. By Skye Johani, I'd recommend you grab it.

It is so good. But the five different postures are these. Life under God, where we see God is this demanding being that's just waiting for us to step out of line so he can drop the hammer. It's a life of insecurity, hiding, pretending, guilt, shame, and fear. Man, it is a heavy way to live. And then we talked about life over God. This is the view that basically says there is no God. If he does exist, he is disinterested and irrelevant,

so somebody needs to step to the plate and be in control. Somebody needs to be at the top of the org chart of my life. So might as well be me. Last episode, we unpack the posture of life from God, where we only want stuff from him. He's like a divine vending machine or a concierge that makes our light better. When we get what we want, we tend not to need him anymore. or when we don't get from him what we expect,

we get mad and walk away and slide into that life over God where we say, so much for that, I need to take control. Today I want to look at the one that really hit me between the eyes. All of these did, but this one really got me. It's life for God. And I have fallen into this posture more than a time or two of my life. Maybe you have two where we say, man, I'm on mission, man. I'm passionate about transforming the world.

I'm not consumeristic like those soft and lazy expect things from God Christians. I'm about doing great things for God. Now, of course, none of this dismisses the incredible importance of God's mission in the world or his particular calling on our lives. We're supposed to make a difference in this world. We're supposed to serve other people. I mean, Jesus called us to be salt and light. But, man, it is so easy to put the mission in the place of God.

I've done it. And before we know it, our mission, our ministry, our purpose, our gifting, our calling starts becoming our God. Let me ask those of you who might be pretty familiar with the Bible, who within the pages of the New Testament would you describe as a sold, out, driven, passionate on mission, get it done, change the world kind of guy? Yeah, most would immediately think of Paul. I mean, dudes out there risking his life, he's traveling, he's preaching, he's preaching, he's planting churches, he's sacrificing,

jumping in and out of prison, all because of his faith, you would say, now, there's a man living for God. And although his mission dominated his life, it did not define his life. Everything in his life, including God's calling on his life, took a back seat to his number one passion, God himself. He was a guy who had done life under God, over God, from God, and for God. He'd done all of them.

And I want you to see what he writes while in prison because of his calling. We saw this verse a few episodes back, where he lists his resume, all of his misdirected, religious striving for God kind of former life. He calls it all garbage. And then he says this, Philippians

310, I just want to know Christ. I just want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him sharing in his death. So that one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead. Here's a God saying above everything else.

My main passion is knowing Christ. He also wrote this passionate plea. In the last letter we studied together, Colossus chapter 2, verse 7, he says, Let your roots grow down into Him. Let your lives be built on Him. And out of all the things he could have prayed for us, he says this in Ephesians chapter 3, beginning in verse 18. I pray that you may have the power to grow.

grasp as God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it's too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Here's a guy saying with every ounce of passion within him, you just got to get to know God. You've got to get to know Jesus. You've got to grasp and experience his love. Because if we don't experience God's love, we will continue to remember. run after acceptance, security, and significance based on our performance.

And honestly, sometimes people who fear insignificance are the most driven to accomplish great things for God. Gordon McDonald calls this way of life missionalism. It's the belief that your worth is determined by the achievement of something great. He writes this, missionalism starts slowly and gains a foothold in the leader's attitude. Before long, the mission controls almost everything. time, relationships, health, spiritual depth, ethics, and convictions. In advanced stages, missionalism means doing whatever it takes to solve the problem.

In its worst iteration, the end always justifies the means. The family goes, health is sacrificed, integrity is jeopardized, and God connection is limited. And it all starts with the perspective of life for God. A last episode, we talked about a story that Jesus told about the prodigal. kid. That's only half the story. There's another son. Some of you know, he's very different from his younger life from God brother. He was reliable,

trustworthy, obedient, and represented those who work for God. So his wild younger brother comes home. The dad embraces him, throws a huge party to celebrate his return, but this older brother is not having it. Throws a fit, refuses

to come, says to his dad all these years, man, I have served you. I've been the good son. I've worked hard. And this irresponsible jerk comes on and you throw a party? I've never had a party after all I've done for you. And this is the thanks I get. Well, Jesus told this story in front of a bunch of very devout religious leaders who got their significance from working for God. And Jesus is not telling them that faithful service is wrong, but when you find your worth there and it honestly does become all about you, it leads to entitlement, self-righteous,

resentment, bitterness, anger, and a very smug arrogance, and that is a heart that's very far from the father. You see, for both sons, all the father ever wanted was for them to be with him. And that's all He wants for us. That's all God has ever wanted. When he looks at you, he sees his child, created in his image and radically loved. He sees someone that he's always longed to do life with. You see, it's not under God, over God, from God, or for God. It's with God. And with changes everything. Come back tomorrow and we'll wrap this up by diving into that. Man, I hope you 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.

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.