Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Great Love from the Great Lover | Ep. 93 | Wednesday June 14, 2023

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

God's love far surpasses the love of imperfect people. His unfailing love, grace and mercy provide a foundation for us to live our lives authentically and not as someone else. In today’s episode, Pastor Mike remind us of the great love from the greatest lover. 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 Daily Drive podcast. My name is Mike. I hope you're making some memories this summer.

Perhaps you're able to take some time off, get into that summer vibe routine. So thanks for making this a regular part of your day. Hey, if you're new to the podcast, so thrilled that you're joining us. All we do is take about five minutes every day, try to get to know God a little bit better, stick some truth and some wisdom for the journey into our hearts. And currently we're spending some time talking about identity theft,

how you and I have an enemy who wants to hack into our soul and steal our true identity. I read a recent article about identity theft, and it talked about a 23-year-old single mom from Atlanta who had her identity stolen. She discovered that a former coworker had opened more than 25 credit cards in her name, taking out loans, even filed for a marriage license in her name. Her ex-colleague allegedly had run up $37,000, including the cart. She says in the article, It's really scary

knowing that someone else has been living my life. And I hung on that line, because it's scary, isn't it, to think that somebody else is living your life? But I see it all the time. I see people all the time allowing other people to live their lives. I watch middle school and high school students,

college students who will do just about anything and change into whoever they need to be in order to be accepted by a certain group, a certain guy, a certain girl. I mean, why do you think gangs flourish? Why do you think people so readily give up their body sexually? It's because there's this need to be accepted by an unfailing love. So we will be whoever we need to be and allow other people to live our lives.

I mean, why do men and women compromise their values at work? Why do we care so much about what other people say or think or post about us? Why do we end up in codependent patterns and relationships where we just need to be needed? It's because we're looking for acceptance. and significance in our lives. I saw a post from Bob Goff a few weeks ago that said this, the price of acceptance is too high if it costs you who you are. The price of acceptance is too high if it costs you who you are.

Like we talked about last episode, we can spend our lives trying to cram the square peg of relationships with imperfect people into that round hole of our heart, and in the process it can cost us who we are. And if you do that long enough, somewhere along the line you're going to get very frustrated and or really, really hurt. Hasn't that been true in your experience? Haven't you found that imperfect people like us eventually will disappoint you in some way? We saw a verse last time that said this, what a man, what a woman desires, is an unfailing love.

Listen, as healthy and as good as relationships can be, and sometimes they can be great. They still aren't capable of giving us 100% unfailing love. love. Gang, people like us fail. People like us will betray you. People break promises. People break vows. People will exclude you. People will reject you. They'll wound you, embarrass you, use you. That's what people do. And we've all been on both ends of that. And when you get stung by somebody that you were expecting to, quote, unquote, complete you, all that acceptance, all that security, all that significance that you've been craving is gone. And when the unfailing love you desire doesn't live up to expectations, it bails on you, or worse even abuses you, there's a wave of bitterness

that washes into that void. And now you've got all this bitterness, all this resentment roll around the inside of you, and I'm telling you, it will hack into your soul and really do a number with your identity. I read a little book years ago that helped me immensely with all this. It's a book called Abbas Child by Brennan Manning. And among the hundreds of amazing things, he says, I love this, he says. If we want to truly love, we must return again and again to the great love of the great lover. If we want to truly love, we must return again and again to the great love of the great lover. You see, it's only when you and me allow God to love us and experience his unfailing love,

his lavish mercy, his unconditional grace, that we're able to extend the same kind of grace, forgiveness, and mercy, to another imperfect human. human being. It is only then that you can move through your life knowing that in spite of what other people say or post, no matter what they do, no matter what they think, you know, you know, you're already accepted. You know you're already secure. You know you're already significant. That what God says about you is what really matters. So let me ask you, what's your mental picture of God? I mean, how do you see him? Maybe you think like I used to and see God as this almost sadistic teacher who loves getting out of his giant red pen and marking up my test papers, that's wrong, and that's wrong, you are so pathetic. Or maybe you see him as an absentee father

who bails on you when things get tough or that demanding coach that you could never do it fast enough and good enough for. I used to think God was mad at me, just ticked at me, disgusted by me. And as you might guess, that invited all kinds of negative self-talk and insecurity into my life. because I began to see myself the way I thought God saw me. That's why I agree with A.W. Tozer who famously said, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. You know, I've said it many times, but Jesus came to show us what God is really like.

And when I started looking at Jesus, I finally got an accurate picture of God as this perfect father who loves me with an inclusive, reckless, fierce, sacrificial, unfailing love. And it changed everything about my life. I love what a guy named Paul wrote about Jesus. We saw this a few weeks ago as we walked through the book of Colossians together. He said this, all things were created by him and for him. Now, if all things including you and me were made by him, then we are not a random accident, but a wonderfully handcrafted, priceless creation,

and not only made by Him, but made for Him, created for intimate connection with Him, filled with purpose for our days on this planet, and since we were made both by God and for God, our souls long to connect. There's this pull that's been hardwired within each one of us to search for Him, and you can fight that pull, you can pretend that it does not exist,

but you're only kidding yourself, it's there. We are all constantly drawn to him because what a man, what a woman desires, is an unfailing love. You see, deep within our hearts is a Godlike shape, a perfect fit for Jesus in every way. No heart is too big, no heart is too small. Jesus is the answer. He fits them all. See you back tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today.

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