Live Free with Josh Howerton - Rooted in God’s Word | Ep. 317 | Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

In Matthew 13, Jesus told a story about a teacher sowing the Word of God. The seed of Scripture landed on a variety of different types of soil. The first type of soil was hard and unreceptive, which can be us sometimes. The next time you sit to listen to someone sowing Scripture, pray and ask God to give you a soft heart ready to receive what He wants you to hear. 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.com. dot church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, thanks for hanging with us on the daily drive today, whether you are actually on your daily drive or you're working out or you're sitting on the porch, sipping coffee, you're starting your day or getting ready for bed. Just grateful that you would want to spend a few minutes getting to know God better.

My name is Mike Bro, and I thought since it was spring, you know, the growing season, we'd spend some time taking a look at some of the ways that God grows you and me from the inside out and helps us become fruitful people. Yesterday we talked about how God will use pivotal circumstances that prune us and grow us. We can look back at all the things we've experienced, unexpected things, hard things, painful things, and we can see how God grew our character through it all. We saw this scripture yesterday from James chapter 1 where he writes, Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides,

because you know that under pressure your faith life is forced into the open, and it shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you can become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. We spent the entire week on suffering back, I think it was last December. So check that out if you could use some hope for what you're going through. God really will use hard things to prove us back into a dependent relationship with them, and our character will grow from the inside out in ways that we never imagined.

And not only does God use those pivotal circumstances, but I've also seen how he uses practical teaching to bring about transformation. Now, you might expect a teacher to say that. But even though I do teach, I say that as a learner. Because when you hear the Word of God and it takes root in your life, it begins to transform you from the inside out. You know, oftentimes we hear somebody talk about their faith journey. Something like this pops up in the conversation.

They'll say, it was when I was invited to that Bible study, It was when somebody invited me to church or when I was listening to that podcast. It was when I went on that retreat, this guy, this woman, this speaker, this Bible study leader opened up the Word of God and taught. Up to that point in my life, I thought the Bible was pretty much irrelevant, but through His Word, God started doing something significant in my life. God uses the practical teaching of His Word to change us, to sharpen us, to encourage us, convict us, to grow us. And that's why transformational teaching has been such a high value at every church that I've been blessed to be a part of.

And I can't speak for other churches, but those of us who teach at every single learning venue around Lake Point are committed to fanning our gift into flame. We want to work hard with our gifts and prepare well. We want to always open ourselves up for the Holy Spirit to teach us first and then get out of the way and let him work in and through us because it's all about him and only God can do the transformational purpose. part. I get a chance to mentor young teachers, and I absolutely love it. And I tell them all the time,

our job is to throw the very best alley-up pass we can throw, and God will come along and dunk it in someone's heart. You know, I can't believe I get to do this with my life. It's so humbling, and yes, I still get nervous every single time I preach or teach. But the thing that gives me confidence is that this is so much more about the seed than it is the one who sows the seed. You know, was an amazing teacher. He used all kinds of object lessons, stories, parables. They illustrate some life-changing truth. He was a master storyteller.

He would take the mysteries of God's kingdom and put them in practical, understandable turns for ordinary people like you and me to understand. And the ordinary people in Jesus' crowd had probably heard the self-righteous religious leaders preach down to them lots of times. But they never heard anybody

teach like Jesus. He taught like somebody who actually knew God. He taught like someone who actually liked them. He taught like somebody who actually understood humility and at the same time spoke like someone who had the authority to speak on God's behalf. Well in Matthew 13 Jesus is teaching to a large crowd, so big in fact he has to get into a boat off the shore and use the bank as an amphitheater, and he tells this miracle grow story. He talks about sowing seeds and cultivation and different kinds of soil and the amazing and not so amazing kind of growth. And this is how the story begins

in Matthew 13. Then he told them many things in parables, saying, A farmer went out to sow his seed, and as he was scattering the seed, some fell among the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Now, Jesus doesn't always explain what his parables mean. Sometimes he leaves that up to the listener,

but this time he does. So we're going to skip down to verses 18 and 19 and see what he's talking about here. He says, listen to what the parable the sower means. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. So let's just hang there today.

Now the seed here represents the word of God. The farmer is the person teaching it. The scattered seed fell among the path. I'm not sure if he meant a gravel path, a concrete sidewalk, a lovely flagstone paver walk, but whatever it was, it was hard. It was the kind of soil, whether it was just like no soil. It's the kind of ground that made those seeds just kind of bounce back up, roll around, sit there, and become some bird's breakfast.

The seed had nowhere soft to land. And I think that sometimes, when we come into any kind of environment where we have an opportunity to sit and listen and hear the Word of God, whether in our groups or a student ministry environment or at a church on a weekend, we can do the same thing. We can give the seed nowhere soft to land. Maybe for you, the concrete path has been, oh, man, I've already heard this. I know all this stuff.

I don't need to hear this again. Or maybe your concrete path is, I hate it when they do topical teaching. I like it when they go verse by verse through a book of the Bible. Or I hate it when they go through a book of the Bible. Why aren't they talking about a relevant topic that applies to my life? Or I don't like it when it hits too close to home. It's too personal when they talk about my money or my time or my relationships. Or, oh, man, this is not my favorite teacher.

I like you when the other guy that other girl teaches. Are you kidding video again? And we can stop listening before we ever start. You ever get like that? Man, I have. And that chosen attitude. Yes, it is a chosen attitude. Just makes our heart hard and unreceptive to what God may want to say to us.

And his word just bounces off like seed hitting a sidewalk. I wonder what would happen if every time each of us were in an environment, where we had the opportunity to learn God's word, we would begin by saying this simple prayer, God, as they teach, let me be teachable. God, as they teach, let me be teachable. Let me be soft and open-minded, ready to hear, ready to change the things in my life that are contrary to your word. God right now, set aside my pride, my ego, my cynicism, my arrogance, my know-it-allism, on a shelf. Better yet, drive it all far from me.

Help me be humble. and ready to listen. And God, keep me teachable in all areas, not just in the ones I like. Help me not to approach your word like an all-you-can-eat buffet. You know, I'll take some of that, I'll leave that, I'll like that part about God wanting to bless my life, but don't like that part about surrender and sacrifice

and serving the poor. Instead, you pray, God, help me receive everything you have for me today, even if it's hard for me to hear. God, as they teach, help me be teachable. 1 Timothy chapter 3 15 through 17 from the message says this there's nothing like the written word of God for showing you

the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus every part of scripture is God breathed and useful one way or another showing his truth exposing our rebellion correcting our mistakes training us to live God's way through the word we are put together and shaped up for the task that God has

for us and you know there's a ton of great resources out there There are podcasts that are so much deeper than this one. There's lots of teaching online from great communicators. There's tons of great books that can help you grow. But I'm convinced that God's Word, the Bible, is a single most indispensable tool that you and I have at our disposal in life. Because this book tells us how to build a life,

how to build a marriage, how to raise our kids, how to get along with people, how to manage our money, how to be a good boss, how to be a good employee, how to express ourselves sexually, how to resolve conflict. This book tells us about life after death. It tells us how to get right with God through Jesus Christ. This book is a moral compass to tell us right from wrong. It's why the intro to this podcast says,

when the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change, because God's word is amazing. But just hearing it or reading it is not what changes you. It's the soil you bring, the humility, the teachability that allows the seed a fertile place to land. You know, I never want to stop learning. I never want to stop growing. But I will if I think I've arrived.

I will never be fully alive. I will never flourish in this life if my heart stays hard and packed down. So I just want to challenge all of us today. Let's stay open, humble, teachable, coachable, don't let God's word just bounce off your heart. Why don't you say today, Lord, as you teach, help me. me be teachable. So let's just put a pen in the story and we'll pick it up tomorrow. Man, I hope you have a great day. 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 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.comte.com slash daily drive.