Live Free with Josh Howerton - Staying Rooted in Jesus | Ep. 78 | Wednesday May 24, 2023

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

In a world that values success and achievement, it's easy to forget what really matters. But as we learn in today's episode, the most important thing is to stay rooted in Jesus. Let's not get sidetracked by human teachings or rules that promise to complete us. Instead, let's allow our roots to grow into God's love and be a light in the world. 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, welcome to the podcast. My name is Bro, and thanks for joining us as we spent a few minutes just drinking from a well that never runs dry. Man, I hope you're experiencing the freshness of God's word. It really is like living water for thirsty souls. All I'm doing every day is just sharing with you all what I'm personally working through so we can all go on this journey with God together.

Again, some of us have been doing Bible studies for a long time, and many of us are just getting started with this whole thing. And I just think it's cool that we can all be on the same journey, but at different mile markers along the way. and God meets us exactly where we need to be met where we are. Well, we're trekking through this little letter in the New Testament called Colossians, it was written to encourage a passionate group of Jesus followers to stay on the right path, to continue being rooted deeply in him, and let him be their firm foundation.

To do that, the writer Paul has to confront some of the junk that was infiltrating their church. It was such an effective, difference-making kind of church. We've already seen how they were full of love for people, because of that, they were light in their city. And like we said last episode, the enemy of our soul doesn't like that, where Jesus is all about light and hope and truth and life,

he is all about darkness, lies, and confusion. So all these false teachers show up, and they try to pull these good folks away from Jesus, trying to defame him, make him seem less, telling them that they needed so much more than Jesus for their life to be complete. Not unlike, a lot of the lies our enemy spends in our culture today. Well, Paul addresses the ultra-religious people who are trying to convert them to a religion that may include Jesus, but it has to be a Jesus-plus kind of plan, Jesus-plus, our rules, Jesus-plus, our rituals, our practices for it all to really count.

He tells them, it's not a Jesus-plus, eat this, don't drink this, wear this, celebrate this, rest here, kneel there, pray this, face that way, legalistic DIY, your own righteousness kind of plan. It's a Jesus plus nothing plan. He is enough. And then Paul leaves the religious folks, and he goes after the mystics. There were these experiential teachers who were claiming to have additional enlightenment. So he encourages the people in verse 18, don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. He said, don't listen to people who say, God told me. God told exclusively me, and I heard it in a language that was exclusively his.

He gave me a vision of the way it has to be. He gave me a language that only he can hear. Paul says, their sinful minds have made them proud. He's just saying, when you brag about spirituality, it just reveals your arrogance. Humility is what identifies a person with Jesus. And when they talk that way, it just shows they're not connected to Christ, who's the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God and nourishes it.

It goes back to the verses. I told you, we had our kids memorized and recite before school when they were young. I would get up at the crack of dawn, and I would bake them homemade bread and make an omelet of their choice every morning. Okay, I open a box of pop tarts. But we would sit around the breakfast table,

and we recite these words from verse 8 in the first part of the chapter. You already memorize them, too, right? We asked you a couple days ago to do that. In case you haven't got there, let's do it again. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world rather than from Christ. It's all about Him. Everything in your life is built on Him. He's your truth source. He's from where you get your worldview. He's how you see other people. He is your model for humility. He is your example for servanthood. He is your role model for courage and kindness and compassion. He is your picture of love. Don't let anyone

capture you with anything else because he is enough. And then Paul says this in verse 20. You have died with Christ. He's saying once again, you died your old way of thinking, your old way of living, your old way of relating, man, you're living a new normal. You're walking a new life of grace and freedom. And he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as don't handle this, don't taste, don't touch, Don't fall for that stuff. It'll only sidetrack you. It'll pump your ego up.

It'll make you post-arrogant stuff on social media. It'll turn you into a lousy neighbor. It'll turn you into a selfish teammate. Turn you into an intolerant, hate-filled look down on other people because I'm better than you kind of person. Paul says you died to all that crap. Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. He's saying none of that trendy new information stuff lasts. It sounds right.

Sounds even cool and new. But the gang gets as old as the lie in the Garden of Eden when evil slithers in and scoffs. Did God say that? Come on. Did God say that? Verse 23, these rules may even seem wise because they require strong devotion,

pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. See, I believe one of Satan's greatest schemes is to get you and me dependent on our own strength and willpower, because if he can make us dependent upon our own strength, it will make us independent from God. And if we're independent from God, he knows we will never, ever change. Paul says these dig down deep within yourself kind of rules, they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires.

In other words, rules don't change the heart. Hard work doesn't change the heart, never has. That only happens through the transforming power of Jesus Christ. Again, it is a Jesus plus nothing plant. It's a God's love plus nothing plant. So let your roots grow down into the soil of God's marvelous love so that you can flourish and grow as the person God always intended for you to be. And we might as well start right now.

I'm praying today that God will put somebody in your path that needs a touch from him. And when they meet you, they will see someone whose heart is changing because they met this guy who's enough. His name is Jesus. Man, I hope that happens today. I'm praying that happens for you today.

day. See you back here 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 lake point. comte. com. Church slash daily drive.