Live Free with Josh Howerton - Stand Up Against the Enemy’s Lies | Ep.318 | Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

Join us today as we revisit Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13. Sometimes, we can be the rocky soil He talks about. We hear God’s Word but don’t let it take root in our lives. However, when we allow the Holy Spirit to grow deep roots in us, we can stand up against the enemy’s lies and schemes. 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.combe. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what is up? Thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive, where we spend a few minutes each weekday, just sticking some truth from God's word in our hearts. We've been talking this week about miracle grow. Not the fertilizer stuff you put on plants, but the supernatural way God grows you and me

from the inside out. We talked on Monday about how God grows us through pivotal circumstances, those defining moments in life to get our attention in some way. It could be a mountaintop kind of experience, but it's usually in a valley where the growth takes place. And so many of us personally know how God shaped our character and grew our hearts through some of the hardest things we've ever been through. And as we look back, we wouldn't necessarily want to go through that again, but we wouldn't trade the way our relationship with him got so much deeper because of it. We started talking yesterday about how God not only uses pivotal circumstances, but he also grows us through practical teaching. And we left off with a story that Jesus tells about

about a farmer, some seed, and different types of soil. In the last episode, we talked about how the seed that Jesus said fell on the path, how it represents hard, unreceptive hearts. God can't teach you and me if we remain unteachable. Jesus goes on to talk about another type of soil in verse 5 of chapter 13 of Matthew. He says some of the seed fell on rocky places. Where it didn't have much soil, it sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched,

and they withered because they had no root. Then he explains down in verse 20, the one who received the seed that fell on rocky places, it's a man who hears the word and it once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. I think that all of us can agree that we have resembled rocky soil

at different times in our lives. Where we hear the teaching from God's Word, and it actually gets planted in us. We actually get kind of excited about it. It springs up in our life very quickly. Then we walk out of church, we walk out of a group study, we walk out of a recovery group, thinking, yeah, that's it,

that's me, I'm going to do that. I'm going to live more like that. And we may even modify our behavior for a little while or try a little harder to do the right thing, but because we don't allow the truth that we've heard to penetrate in the deeper places of our soul, the change is only temporary.

It's like watching those workout videos, man, I get all fired. I go, man, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. Yep, I'm going to get ripped like that. I'll hit the floor and do like five pushups and change the channel and go fix a bowl of ice cream. There's no root, only a brief, yeah, I should do that. You know, roots are amazing. Roots are so fascinating because the majority of the time, they're unseen. They lie beneath the surface, but the role they play is essential. The roots are what hold the nutrients and allow life to grow and flourish above ground. And if my life and yours is going to float, flourish. We have to allow the Word of God to break through the surface of our lives and go deep within us, to be planted in the core of who we are to become rooted in us. Jesus said that unless that happens, when tough times come, when storms blow in and they will, our faith won't make it. Will us shrivel up and die or run to things that can ease the pain for a little while but can't sustain us in the long haul? But if we have the truth about who God's, we have to be able to be is what is characters like what he thinks of us what he says about us how he is for us how he was

with us how he loves us when we have that rooted in us then even when those hard times come actually especially when they come we start to grow in ways we never imagine we could here's the deal life happens Jesus said it would it gets hard and when it does the enemy will be there to whisper see god doesn't love you look at you your whole world's apart you ought to worry you need to be anxious do you see where following Jesus is getting you he doesn't care about you but when you have deep roots you're able to not only see those lies for what they are you're able to hang on to the truth that will sustain you when the phone call comes when the biopsy is positive when we're

cut from the team or the breakup is official or the pink slip is handed out or the foreclosure notice comes if we've got Romans 828 rooted in us then we never that God is working all things together behind the scenes for our good. If we got Hebrews 13-5 rooted in us, then we know that He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. If we've got 1-Peter 5-7 rooted in us, then we will cast all our anxiety on him because we know He cares for us. If we've got Psalm 23 rooted in us, then we know that He will lead us to still water in

greener pastures and will walk with us through the valley, even the valley of the valley of debt. If we've got Ephesians 3, 16 through 19 rooted in us, then we know just how long, how high, how deep, how wide, his unfailing love is for us. If we want to allow God's word to grow our faith, we have to open ourselves up so it moves beyond the shallow surface level and allow it to become rooted deep within us. It's why the Apostle Paul writes in Colossus 2.7, let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and you will actually overflow with thankfulness he wrote when you know how wide high how deep how long god's love is for you then he says this then christ will make his home in your

hearts as you trust in him your roots will grow down into god's love and keep you strong no matter what happens in this life, you will grow and flourish because your roots run deep. So this spring, as plants and trees and flowers and grass are all sending their roots deeper, what do you say we do the same? Now we got a couple more types of soil from Jesus' story. Come back tomorrow and we will try not to get into weeds with all this, or maybe we actually will. Have a great day. We'll see you back tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today.

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.com. Church slash daily drive.