Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Deceit of "Living Your Truth" | Ep. 348 | Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

It isn’t enough to know the truth; we must respond to the truth! And we can trust that what God says is true. Jesus even says He is the Truth. Blessing comes from living and responding to what is true, so let us not neglect this opportunity. 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 slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Well, hey guys, 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 Pointe. And we get to hang out this week for a few minutes every day as we dive together into the Word of God.

And today, let me read the book of James chapter 1, verse 22 to 25. It says this, do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like, but whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do.

There's a certain deception that takes place amongst Christians today that merely listening to the Word of God is enough for your spiritual life and walk with Jesus. Some of us might be in a place where we attend church regularly, read our Bibles frequently, listen to Bible podcasts habitually, read Christian books occasionally, and all of those things are great, they're powerful, important, and necessary in your life. But listen to this. In enough itself, those things are not the point. It doesn't end with the sermon or the Bible podcast or the Christian devotional book

or your personal quiet time in the morning. It doesn't end there. It starts there. And after you've been in the word, after you listen to the word, now there's work to do. Now it's time to actually go and do what it says. This might be a bit embarrassing to share, but I bet more people do this. When I go out to dinner, this happens all the time, when I go out to dinner with friends or I share a meal with other people, at some point, I have to discreetly grab my phone and I use the reflection of my phone or the camera to check my teeth to make sure that I don't have a random piece of Brock.

stuck in between my middle teeth. Trust me, it happens, it has happened a lot. Some people out there have perfect teeth. God bless them. I don't think I'm one of them. I wore braces for like six years when I was a teenager. I had teeth coming out of weird angles and the top and bottom of my mouth. And today, the way my teeth are positioned, they're like very prone to have like a seat stuck in there somewhere or food gets stuck easily in the corners. So I'm very aware I have to be mindful to check with a mirror or in my case, my phone's camera or my phone's reflection. to remove it. And thank God also.

I have people around me like my wife, who I just smile at her big, and she knows that's my cue to say, are my teeth good? And she goes, yep. And that's what best friends and wives are for. Now, can you imagine if you and I are sharing a meal and I check my teeth at some point after our meal,

and I have a piece of spinach stuck in my tooth, and you see me grab my phone and check it, and then I do nothing. I kept on smiling big and talking. and talking in front of my friends and I did nothing about it. If you were there with me and you saw me check my teeth and do nothing about it, one, you'd be wondering why I checked and then decide to not try to remove that thing stuck in my teeth. And two, you'd probably feel a bit awkward trying to decide,

should I tell us, should I say something? Should I tell him? It looks like he's missing a tooth, but it's just like a huge piece of spinach. That's kind of what James is saying when we listen to the Word of God, and we do not do what it says. Every time we listen to an encouraging word or a sermon or a devotional podcast or a biblical message, I need to ask myself, how will this affect or change my daily life? And listen to this, how will this mold my mind and my heart and my desires to conform

to the mind, heart, and desires of Jesus? If I don't do that and I don't do what the Word of God says, the Bible says, I'm actually deceiving myself. There's this contemporary proverb that is used over and over again today. And it is the phrase, live your truth. And the idea behind this phrase is you have your truth and I have my truth and they have their truth and everybody's just supposed to just live their own truth in order to be happy. And now there's quite a few things that are inconsistent about this idea and we don't have

time to go too much in depth on it, but I will say a few things. Number one, if there's such a thing as quote unquote, your truth and his or her truth, what happens when my truth contradicts your truth? If that's the case, which one is true? Now, what if your truth says his truth or her truth is a lie? Which one of those is true? That's one. And two, the Bible simply just doesn't doesn't say live your truth, but it does say live God's truth. It says God is who defines what is and is not true. When God speaks, he speaks the truth, which means anything or anyone that contradicts what God has said is not true. And when somebody believes something that is not true, in other words, when somebody believes a lie, they become a slave to that lie. That's why fear is a lie. Because

it refuses to acknowledge the truth that God is in control. That's why anxiety is a lie. It refuses to trust in the truth that God will care for you. That's why pride is a lie. It refuses to recognize that God is great, glorious, and perfect, and we are not. That's why guilt is a lie. It refuses to accept the truth that God is a God of abundant grace. And we get to experience that grace through Jesus.

And that's one of the reasons why Jesus comes and says, hey, listen, when it comes to truth, I am the truth. And when you know truth, when you know Jesus, you experience freedom. This is why James in verse 25 says, but whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives, listen, freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do. The point of the truth of the Word of God is not simply to receive

more information, the point is to experience transformation of who you and I are becoming. If you follow Jesus, you were made to become like who you followed. If you worship Jesus, you are meant to become like who you worship. If you walk with Jesus, if you listen to Jesus, if you trust in Jesus, if you seek to know Jesus, you become like Jesus. Lastly, James says, hey, when you live God's truth, you will experience God's blessings. I've heard it said before. There are three types of blessings you get from God.

The first one is the type of blessing you get because you're alive. You get to breathe, you get to enjoy food, the weather is still beautiful, nature is still here. You can enjoy certain aspects of life, and that is because of God's grace and blessing over your life. because not because of you, but because of who God is. The second type of blessing you get because you know Jesus. The Bible says that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. You have a new identity. You have a heavenly father.

You have the Holy Spirit. You receive power. You belong to a family of believers. You get to experience his abundant life today and more. That's a second type of blessing. Not everybody gets it. But there's a third type of blessing. And this is the blessing that comes from a life that listens to the Word of God and does what it says.

This is an obedient life. This kind of blessing comes with obedience. And this kind of blessing is conditional. It's conditional on your obedience. Jesus, that one time he watched the disciples' feet. He says this in John 13, verse 7. Jesus says, now that you know these things, you will. be blessed if you do them.

Jesus is speaking on this third kind of blessing. And I've heard it said this way before. This type of blessing, you can behave your way into this blessing and you can behave your way out of this blessing. We do not obey to be saved, but we do obey to be blessed. Today, how about we live God's truth in a way that we step into this blessing, that we may experience the fullness of everything that God has for you as we feast in the truth of the Word of God, and then we go out and do what it says. 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. combe. Church slash daily drive.