Live Free with Josh Howerton - Reflecting Your Beautiful Creator | Ep. 100 | Friday June 23, 2023

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

As we continue in this series, Pastor Mike reminds us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made to reflect God's truth and image to the world. Our Creator, not the mirror, defines us. You are free to stop looking to the mirror and become the mirror of the only one worth looking at: Our beautiful Creator. 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.com slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. My name is Mike Bro, and I'm so honored to spend a few minutes every weekday with you, grateful that you want to pursue a relationship with God because he has pursued you your entire life

and he loves you with everything he's got. And we're spending some time this summer talking about how we all get hacked, not just social security numbers and passwords and profiles and such, but where it really messes with us, like down deep in our soul. Jesus called the original hacker the father of lies. and his agenda is to take us far away from the one who loves us and gives us our true identity. And in recent days, we've been talking about how all of us can get mugged by the mirror,

that we are bombarded with messages and images about what we are supposed to look like in our culture. And we said that we need to go on the offensive and proactively start doing some things that ground our identity in truth. We said you've got to know what God says, to internalize what he says about you, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, that you are already accepted, secure, and significant.

He calls you his child. And we also said we need to begin to see how God sees, that he doesn't look at the externals, but on the heart. And we need to see other people that way and spend our time working on inner beauty and inner handsomeness. Yesterday, we talked about how we have to love who God loves, that there's healing for ourselves by not focusing so much on ourselves. When we lose ourselves in loving and serving other people,

it keeps us from obsessing over what the mirror is saying. about us. And gang, when we do all of that, we begin to reflect who God is. That's why we were made. We talked a few episodes ago about how we were made by God and for God, made by him in his image as this priceless handcrafted masterpiece, and made for him to reflect to a watching world who he is. Look at what this scripture says. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18, but we Christians have no veil over our faces. We can be mirrors. We can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him. Instead of obsessing about the mirror, we become the mirror, the ones who reflect the image of God

to a watching world. You know, the older I get, man, I'm falling apart. We have an annual kids versus grownups kickball game before we head out for our 34-person vacation in the same house. And we're playing against all these little kids. And I mean, they're all little. But man, the kickball is brutal. We were all popping at Advil the next day. I was at IHop the other day. And it happened for the very first time. When I got my check, I noticed that the waiter had given me the senior discount without asking. And I wanted to say, hey, dude, I don't need this. But Now, I took 20% off and I hobbled off to my truck. I love what the Apostle Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.

He says this, so we're not giving up. How could we? Even though on the outside, it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside where God is making new life, not a day goes by where that is unfolding grace. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today gone tomorrow, but the things we can't see will last forever. You know, I've got to be honest. There's something I like about those makeover shows,

whether it's people or houses. I love to see transformation. I think that's why I love ministry so much. I love to see God change people's lives. But I love those shows where they show like the before and after picture. And you look at the before picture and the after picture. Oh, that's amazing. We have these things in our home called photo albums.

You ever heard of these things? When I turn up pages and I look back through old pictures of myself, And I look at all that beautiful hair, and I was thin, I was pretty buff, and then I compare them to the current picture I have on my phone, and the before and after pictures. I mean, they're pretty amazing. But do you know what I really want? I want people to look at me and see the striking, amazing difference

in the before and after Jesus pictures of my life. Because before, I had tons of beautiful thick hair, but I was ugly to the bone. I had pretty tight abs and pecks, but really insecure and made fun of other people. I was even kind of fashionable. My clothes hung pretty good on me, but I dressed myself in envy and lust and pride

and judgmentalism and worry and lies and bitterness. I let the thief distort the image of God and hang in hack into my identity. But then I began to draw close to God, he drew close to me. And I began to grasp how wide, how high, how deep his love, and long as love is for me, and Jesus Christ filled up the whole of my heart.

And through the years and after countless reconstructive surgeries, he's done an extreme makeover of my soul, and the cool thing is he's not done. So mirror, mirror on the wall, you don't get to define me. My creator does that. And now I want to reflect to this world what a good and loving Father he is.

Man, I hope you have a great day to day. 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 word out. For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.