Live Free with Josh Howerton - Spiritual Game Changer | Ep. 458 | Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

After Peter’s very first sermon in Acts 2, over 3,000 people believed! At the very beginning of the church, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and caring for each other. Every day, God added to their number and these new believers wanted to hear more about Jesus. Do you have a teachable heart like theirs that is hungry for more of Jesus?    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. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, this is the Daily Drive, and I'm Mike Bro, and we hang here for a few minutes every weekday, just trying to get to know God better. And we just began a journey through a book called Acts. While it's titled The Acts of the Apostles, it's really the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

While God does use all kinds of people, men and women, to start the Church of Jesus Christ, it's the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit of God, working through them. We witnessed that yesterday in Acts Chapter 2, where the Holy Spirit blew into the life. of Jesus' initial followers and enabled these men and women to proclaim the good news in different native languages of the people in the crowd. You can go back and read the incredible story if you missed it.

Now, can you imagine this brand new church in the pages of Acts, day one, they have at least 3,000 people. And they have no history of what a church even is. They got no organized kids ministry, no campus in which

to meet, hadn't even found a bass player for the ban yet. All they had was this thing, this movement that was spreading like wildfire. And they knew to keep the fire burning, they had to rely on God's spirit. You see, in Acts chapter 1, we find 120 followers

of Jesus who are weak, defeated, and overwhelmed. Acts chapter 2, we find them empowered and strong. Acts chapter 1, they're scared to death and in hiding. Acts chapter 2, they are courageously sharing the good news in the streets. You say, what changed? Well, the Holy Spirit came. And

They experienced his dynamic power in and through them. And now Jesus wasn't just someone they followed. He was in them. So now Peter and the rest of the apostles had to figure out how in the world they're going to include, equip, and provide care for all these thousands of brand new followers of Jesus. So I got a feeling that between verse 41 and 42 and chapter 2, the apostles probably had some now what meetings. Again, nothing like this had ever been done before. So I'm sure they did some next steps, planning sessions, had some whiteboard discussion, and they just prayed for God to give them wisdom.

And out of that seemed to flow a few practices that they would do in order to keep that fire burning. This is what it says in Acts chapter 2 beginning in verse 42. All the believers devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer. A deep sense of all came over them all. And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

They worshiped together at the temple each day, met at homes for the Lord's supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day, the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. if you want to know what a church should look like when it's working right, that's as pure a picture as you will ever find. There was a tremendous sense of unity. Answered prayers were happening regularly.

People shared the possessions with one another. They ate meals together. Worship was flowing. There was continually more and more people being saved because of the dramatic transformation that the Holy Spirit was doing the lives of these new believers. They really were becoming, as Jesus called them, the light of the world.

Now you can see all the practices, that they did in that scripture, but I like to focus for just a couple of episodes on the character traits that these practices flowed out of. You see, too often we focus on doing instead of being. We say, just give me the checklist, show me what I have to do. Now that tends to lead to a little behavior modification, but not real true transformation.

I'm learning that when you and I humble ourselves and allow the same Holy Spirit who ignited this fire to shape our character, then our doing and our being, start to work together. What we do is no longer just a religious regiment where we're trying to check the boxes, but what we practice is now flowing out of who we are becoming. And then all the good things we start practicing come alongside and enhance the character that the Holy Spirit is shaping in us. It just works hand in hand. And all of that starts with the very first trait I see in them. They were teachable. They were teachable. You remember how after Peter preached the good news,

the streets of Jerusalem. All the people in the crowd ask, what should we do? Well, it seems like they kept that same humble, teachable spirit saying, okay, Peter, and what do we do now? Like, what's next? It says here that all the believers devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching. Now, we read this, and we think, oh, so they started reading their Bibles. At that point, they didn't have Bibles like we have. There was no U-Version app to download. It was the divinely inspired words of the Apostles, the Apostles' teaching that would eventually become our Bible, but they didn't have someone stand up and say, let's turn in our Bible. It's the 2nd Peter. They just turned to Peter. They didn't say, turn to the Gospel of John. They just turned to John and said, teach us. Tell us all about Jesus. What he said,

where he went, what he did, who we hung out with. We heard he hung out with sinners. Is that true? What did he say about the heart of God? Why were the religious leaders so critical of him? What did he say about marriage? What did he say about money? What did he teach about forgiveness? what did he tell you about heaven? Someone was telling me that they heard an awesome story that he told one time about a lost sheep and a lost coin and two lost sons. Would you tell us that story? Matthew, we heard you wrote down every word Jesus said

from his very first sermon on that mountainside. Could you share that with us? We just want to know more. They were hungry to know. They were teachable. You see, it's not so much the learning that changes us. It's the teachable spirit we bring to the learning. You see, we can read the Bible cover to cover,

but unless you bring a humble, teachable, show me more kind of attitude to it, it won't transform you. You're just checking off the religious to-do list. But when you bring that hunger, when you dive in on a regular basis saying, teach me, father, I'm hungry for you. Speak to me through this. Show me your ways. Teach me your past. Guide me in your truth.

How does this apply to me right now? What are some next steps you want me to take? Reveal your heart more and more to me. Help me become more and more like Jesus. As we remain teachable, transformation starts to take place, and our being and our doing start to match up. There's a couple of more character traits that I see in this group of new followers that just kept the Holy Spirit's fire burning in them,

and we'll take a look at those tomorrow. But for today, I just want to encourage you, stay teachable today, coachable, moldable, open to what God might be trying to say to you throughout this day. And I'll see you back here 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.church slash daily drive. 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.