Live Free with Josh Howerton - Remember Whose You Are | Ep. 442 | Tuesday , October 15, 2024

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

How do you deal with the temptation of pride or losing your godly identity in a faithless culture? You walk like Daniel… striving to serve with joy and honor while staying close to God. When we walk with our heavenly Father daily, we are able to process God’s promises, His character, and the identity He has created us for. What cultural identity theft do you need God to speak truth in 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. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive, whether you're listening early in the morning or late in the day or somewhere in between. You might be on a treadmill on a back porch and a coffee shop or an SUV. Thanks for joining us.

My name is Bro. And we started unpacking the story of a young guy named Daniel who was challenged to walk with God in a godless culture. He decided that he was just going to be humble and work hard and live his life with excellence and integrity and just joyfully honor God in all things. And even though his new culture wanted to mold. him into their image, he knew. He was made in the image of God, and he wanted God to mold him daily. Now, Daniel from the outside, he did fit the cultural image. He was a lottery-pick kind of guy. He was young, handsome, strong, and great physical condition. He was intelligent, teachable, talented, and poised. He was from a family of high social standing. He would

have been chosen to be like The Bachelor, the one from whom all the women would long to receive a rose, or he would have been like hands-down finalist on Babylonian Idol. And you know, I can only imagine the challenges and temptation that comes from being young, handsome, strong, intelligent, teachable, talented, and poised. It's a distant memory for me. Okay, it's always been like a fantasy for me. But you know what? Some of you, you do have so much going on for you, that you've got to deal with the very real temptation to become self-centered and egotistical, or to read your own press and chase everything our culture opens up for beautiful people like you.

And make no mistake, our culture like Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylon, wants to get its hands on our best and brightest and get them to buy into a narcissistic and materialistic worldview. When I see a young person trying to become like a star, it always scares me, because I know the temptations are going to be huge to walk as far away from God as humanly possible. and the environment that you find yourself in can make it very easy to do that. And I'm sure that those same temptations were there for Daniel. Like some of you, he just had the complete package,

probably voted by senior class of 605 BC, most likely to succeed. Back at North Judah High School, everyone would have predicted great things for Daniel. He would go to a prestigious school. He would graduate with high honors. He would captain the football team. Then on the success in whatever field, he would choose.

He would marry a beautiful woman, live in an HGTV dream house, raised 2.5 beautiful kids, and most likely do some great things with his life. But life did not turn out the way he planned. His world, along with thousands of others, was turned upside down by that phrase we saw in the first two verses. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it with his armies. God made a promise a long time ago to Abraham. I'll be your God and your people will be my people and I will give you a promised land

and I will make you into a great nation that will bless the entire world and the people of Israel for century after century held on to that promise and they experienced a lot of ups and downs to the years they were in slavery in Egypt for many centuries they were delivered under Moses they wandered into wilderness for 40 years

they would grumble and rebel against God and he would say okay take another lap around the desert they finally crossed the Jordan River and entered this promised land. And after a period of time, they reached their golden days under King David and his son Solomon and Solomon built the incredible temple for God.

But because of his quest for personal gratification and the terrible parenting skills he learned from his own dad, his son started the nation into a long, slow tailspin, split the kingdom. By the time of Nebuchadnezzar, there was only Judah left. So when Daniel is like 18 or 19, Nebuchadnezzar comes in,

and with very little effort destroys all that is left of their dreams. The temple is a pile of rubble. The sacred things of God were now placed in the treasure house of Nebuchadnezzar's pagan gods. Things were not working out as scripted. Daniel had lost his dreams,

lost his culture, lost his home, lost the relationships he cherished. He would have to learn and speak a foreign language. He would live and die in a place that he never planned on even visiting. He would never get to go home. home. He even loses his name. And that's a big deal.

Remember back in verse 7, when Daniel and his three friends are each given new names? Each of their old names, their Hebrew names, had a reference to God in it, El or Yaw, Elohim, or Yahweh. Every time they heard their names, it reminded them that they belonged to their Heavenly Father. And the new

name that Nebuchadnezzar gave was his way of saying, Who's your daddy now? Daniel's name meant the Lord will judge. Through his whole life, every time Daniel heard his name spoken, it was a reminder. The Lord will set things right. He is faithful. He is just. He is strong. And he will see that the right thing is done. But now, in this new culture, he's not called Daniel anymore. And now there was a very real temptation to doubt that God was even who he said he was, because he certainly wasn't

setting things right. So what do you do? When you end up in Babylon, because you will. Babylon is where you find yourself when life doesn't turn out the way you plan. When your dream life is shattered, when a relationship or even a marriage falls apart, maybe it happens when your greatest career hope dies. Maybe it happens when a child or a friend or a parent wounds you deeply. Maybe it's when the financial rug gets abruptly pulled out from under your feet, or perhaps it's when that person you never dreamed you'd have to live without.

Lies helplessly in a hospice bed. In those moments you find yourself, yourself in Babylon, cut off from the life that you wanted, the life you planned on, and you may never get home. And worst of all, you wonder if God even knows. You think, how could God let this happen? Does God care? Does he even notice? Does he even know my name anymore? What do you do when you find yourself like Daniel in Babylon? Well, you remember who you really are and who your daddy really is. And with God's help, Daniel learned not just to survive, but to thrive and live a life of authenticity and integrity right in the middle of Babylon.

And that's my prayer for you today. Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. Let God's approval be enough for you today. Don't fall to the pressure to be what your culture says matters. You are accepted by the one who matters most. Walk with a humble confidence in him today. And we'll pick this up tomorrow.

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 and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe. 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.