Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Triumph of Light | Ep. 379 | Thursday, July 18, 2024

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Light is amazing; it warms, guides, and always wins against the darkness. The enemy tries to use your grief to steal, kill, and destroy your life, but the light of truth always will chase away the darkness. Let Psalm 23 give you hope as you walk through your dark valley. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services. 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, text drive to 20411.

Hey, this is the Daily Drive, and I'm Mike Bro, and we've been taking some song lyrics from the Old Testament book of Psalms and downloading them into our minds and hearts, kind of a beats for the battle kind of thing, downloading them so that when the struggle comes will already have some truth in there to hang on to. And we've been applying one of David's most famous songs

to the struggle that all of us eventually go through. It's a struggle called grief. It's Psalm 23, and we've been unpacking it a little bit verse by verse every day, and we've seen how David calls God his shepherd, causing his provider, his leader, his sustain. the one who calms his soul. And then he says this, he guides me along the right paths for his namesake. You know, I have found that grief wants to take me down some dark and desperate roads. We talked about that staircase a few episodes ago where we can start down the steps to disappointment

and then descend into discouragement, then to despair, and then to depression. I've stood at the top of those stairs. And when grief says, come on down, in that moment, the Holy Spirit says, no, come up here, come over here, come this way. And he leads me to better paths, healthy paths, right-thinking kind of paths. Grease says, stuff it down, don't deal with this. This hurt will never go away. Isolate yourself, refuse to talk to anybody about the way you feel, especially God, because if he cared, this would not have happened to you. All lies designed to steal kill and destroy our lives. And in those moments, God, the shepherd,

with the rod of His Word, will lead us in the right direction toward true thoughts. Perhaps a friend, shoot you a text, or they drop by and says, come on, you're going to this meeting with me. Or, come on, you're going out to eat with us. Or, come on, we need a fourth on the golf course today. I've already paid

your green fees. Or maybe your child says something that just resonates in your heart, or you're listening to it like a podcast, or a song, or you're sitting in a church service, and God's Word just reaches right into your heart, and you feel hope. That's how the good shepherd leads us down life-giving paths. Our good friends, Katie Ann and Billy, lost their beautiful, full of life,

funny little girl Bennett a few years back. It was a very tough roller coaster ride with cancer. As things got more and more serious, Katie Ann began initiating conversations with their three-year-old daughter about heaven, and Bennett would respond with fearless faith by saying, Mommy, don't cry. If I go to heaven before you do, I'll send you flowers.

Well, Bennett went to heaven after her brave battle with cancer, and Katie Ann's a remarkable person. Unbelievable. But she was heartbroken. I remember her telling us that on one particularly hard day, she prayed, God, I sure wish I could get some of those flowers from Bennett. So she was cleaning up the house a little later in the day.

Underneath a rug that had been there for years, she found a little puzzle piece lying face down on the floor. more. She thought it was kind of weird because they didn't really own a puzzle, didn't remember only one anyway. And she picked up the puzzle piece and flipped it over, and on the flip side of that puzzle piece was a picture of a beautiful bouquet of flowers. And she said, it was as if God was whispering to her, I know your heart is broken. I know that none of this makes sense to you, but you only see one tiny piece of the puzzle. Someday in heaven you'll see how all these pieces fit together to create a masterpiece, and you'll be with me and with Bennett forever in a place

where there is no more cancer or death or tears. In the meantime, just trust me, I will carry you through this. David experienced that too. So he sings this, even though I walk through the darkest valley. The valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. You'll always wonder when David wrote this lyric. If he was thinking back to the time when he was a shepherd standing in the valley of Ed Ilaah about to go toe to toe to with Goliath, the giant Philistine warrior, Goliath was this huge, heavily armed covered with brass armor kind of guy. And this skinny but skilled shepherd kid takes him out with a sling and a stone because he knew that God was with him. And he writes, even in the darkest valley.

You're with me. Even like the one you might be going through now. That valley can't stay dark because the light of the world is with you. And you know what? Light does all kinds of cool stuff like warm and God and illuminate. But the best thing about light? Light always wins. It's undefeated against darkness.

It shows up. Darkness has to go. Know that he is with you. Let the light of that truth chase away the darkness of your grief. All right. let's just push pause there for the day. We'll wrap this up tomorrow, but just know today that whatever valley you might be facing, he is with you, and the fear of God is the one fear that dispels all others. Hope you have a great day. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today.

For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services. 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, text drive to 20411.