Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Biggest Temptation for Many Christians Today | Ep. 349 | Thursday, June 6, 2024

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

Obedience-optional Christianity is not Christianity at all. Jesus is not a life coach, but our Lord, and we need to give up ourselves and follow Him. We must take up the cross and follow Him if we want the joy of being His disciple. There is an amazing life waiting for you on the other side of denying yourself and following Him. 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, welcome to the Daily Drive. If we haven't met, my name is Carlos, and I get to be a part of the pastoral team here at Lake Point. And we get to hang out this week for a few minutes every day as we together dive into the Word of God.

And today's verse comes from Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. It says this, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave me. himself for me. I read this story the other day. It's about these three pastors that went fishing together. And while they were fishing, one of them said, hey, why don't we just take a moment and do a little exercise? How about we each share an area in our life where we struggle or are tempted the most so that we can confess it to each other? And then we can pray for each other. So they said,

okay, great. Then the first one said, man, my biggest temptation is gambling. I sneak out at night and I go gambling and I don't know if I, I know I shouldn't, but I'm fighting against it. Okay, okay, okay, okay, great. Then the second one said, man, my biggest temptation is occasionally I drink too much. Now, I'm surrounded by accountability and, you know, it's going well. Okay, great. Then the third pastor just sat there silently, not saying a word. So the other two pastors waited and waited, but he wouldn't say anything.

So one of them broke the silence and said, hey, man, we are not leaving until you, tell us what your greatest temptation is and he said all right my greatest temptation is gossip and i can't wait to get off this boat i start there because i think today everybody faces all kinds of temptations but i believe one of the greatest temptations amongst christians in our culture is listen to this to want to follow jesus but not take up his cross it is not in common today to see what be called a quote obedience optional christianity which by the way is no christianity at all but let me explain this is basically thinking or or that if i feel like obeying god then i will but if i don't feel it then you know i kind of don't have to and so what ends up happening is we end up treating jesus like a

life coach more so instead of our lord we read what jesus teaches in scripture and we think that what he said is as a suggestion or our suggestions instead of commands. We love those Bible verses that make us feel good, but we ignore or we just don't want to talk about those things that makes us feel uncomfortable. And at the end of the day, we end up wanting Christ, but we do not want His cross. Now, it's interesting. There's a letter written by Paul to Timothy where he says in 2 Timothy 3. He says this, but mark this.

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves. This was written 2,000 years ago. And you have to acknowledge this is pretty crazy. There is literally no other time in generation where that statement is more true. In June 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4, which was the first iPhone with a front-endron facing camera, which launched a revolution of how much more focus we place on ourselves. Think about this for a second.

How much do you think about you? Since the release of the iPhone 4, studies estimate that around 93 million selfies are taking every day, and that's just a small reflection, I believe, of what's happening in our hearts. We live in a social media world where our platforms and our cultural liturgies, they keep reinforcing the message that it's all about you. It's your profile, your followers, your content, your likes. Facebook will ask you every time to log on what's on your mind.

X is filled with people sharing their opinions. The algorithm is learning what are your preferences, hobbies, interests, what are you for? What are you against? We all want to hear about you. You purchase a product. you attend a restaurant or you receive a service and then you leave your opinion and your review. It is literally all designed to reinforce that it's all about you. This is why the cliche popular messages of our day all honestly just kind of sound the same.

You do you. You deserve to be happy. Do what you love. Live your best life. Speak your truth. It's all about you, you, and you. and we really live in a culture where we are truly lovers of ourselves. And yet, Jesus' message 2,000 years ago was and still is so radical and countercultural.

When he invites us to follow him, his invitation is not so much, you do you, but more so you crucify you. You deny you and you follow him. You cannot follow Jesus if you're not willing to take up his cross. Taking up your cross is at the core of what Jesus taught. He said in Luke chapter 9 verse 23, whoever wants to be my disciple, they must, they must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. today you hear a lot about self-love, but you don't hear much on self-denial. Everybody today would probably agree that in order to accomplish anything worthy or significant

in any area of life, you must embrace some sort of self-denial. Any pro-athlete, for example, today exercises self-denial as they only eat certain foods, wake up early, go work out as well, spends countless and countless hours, training to get better. You cannot be a pro athlete today, much less a pro athlete that actually wins competitions, awards, championships, and finals. You cannot be that person without self-denial. Now, why would anybody even bother to spend hours and hours working out, choosing to not eat the foods that are most delicious, not doing what everybody else in the world is doing, not spending hours scrolling on social media, not binging Netflix shows after shows after shows. Instead,

training day after day, exercising, lifting heavy weights, giving up their whole lives to become the best at what they do. It sounds so painful, so difficult, so sacrificial. Why would anybody even want to do that? Here's why. Because they have their eyes fixed on something of greater value. At some point in their lives, these pro athletes, to realize that there was something of greater significance, something of greater purpose, greatest achievement, greater experience than just living a normal life. There's just something so much better. The same thing applies today, not just for sports, but in honestly any area of life,

business, academics, medicine, careers, people practice self-denial all the time. All these people know that they have to exercise self-denial and pay a sacrificial price because they know they're reaching out for something greater. Jesus says in Luke 923, there is something infinitely greater that I have for you, and that is life with God right now. And if you want to experience that true life, if you want to truly know God, if you want to experience true freedom, you find that by being my disciple,

and that requires you to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. So what does taking up your cross actually mean? Practically speaking, following Jesus and taking up his cross, is understanding that your life is ultimately not about you. You were made for something greater. You were made by God and for God. And so because that is true, today you are free to completely let go

and surrender your whole life to Jesus, all of your desires, your reputation, your glory, any obsession of wanting to be in control of everything, rejecting the lie that in order to find life, you have to love and cling to what you want your life to be. And trusting that Jesus is telling the truth when he said that in order to find life, you have to give it all up and surrender your life to him.

Why? Because the life that God offers you through Jesus is infinitely greater than the life, anything else or anybody else might offer. Listen to this. We don't follow Jesus because he makes life better. We follow Jesus because he's better than life. St. Augustine famously said once,

you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Not comfort, not success, not popularity, not money, not pleasure, only Jesus satisfies the soul. Author Dallas Willard said once, Christ was not crucified so that we wouldn't have to be. He was crucified so that we could be crucified with him. He did not die so that we wouldn't have to die.

He died so we could die with him. And listen to this. That is where you and I in him find true life. We'll see you 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.com.