Live Free with Josh Howerton - Who You Are vs. What You Do | Ep. 360 | Friday, June 21, 2024

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

"So, what do you do for work?" Ever get that question? Who we are and what we do are very different, but when we get these confused, we are on the path to disappointment. Let's trust who God has said we are rather than striving to accomplish what will never be enough. 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. church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. My name is Mike Bro, and I cannot believe that today is already Friday.

Man, this week has flown by it for me. And I am super excited to wrap up a series that we've been doing at Lake Point Church this weekend called You Talking to Me about how to discern God's will for your life. I'm so grateful for every church I get to be a part of. I got a very unique role during this season of my life, and I am so grateful. but if you're around the Dallas area this weekend, stop on by Lake Point campus near you, I would love to meet you,

and you can also check us out online. But here on the Daily Drive, we've been taking a look at a guy's journal. You've probably seen those books, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This is the Diary of a Wealthy King. He's a guy named Solomon who writes with great honesty and vulnerability

to encourage you and me not to do life the way he did it. And we've been calling this journey five easy ways to wreck your life. Solomon tells us that if you want a really wreck your life, then the first thing you need to do, just let pleasure drive you. Just follow your heart, you do you, let your appetize and your selfish desires guide you through your life. If you want it, get it, no matter the cost, no matter the damage it does to you or to those around you. If you really want to wreck your life, just chase after pleasure. Now, if, on the other

hand, you want to thrive in your life, then chase after God. Chase after happiness, and you'll never find it. Chase after God, and happiness will find you. Then, you'll be able to you. Then yesterday he added this one, and if you really want to wreck your life, let success consume you. Let what you do define who you are. Chase approval, applause, fame, followers,

likes, and status. Let achievement become your God, and you'll be well on your way to reckon your life. So let's pick up where we left off yesterday. In Ecclesiases verse 17 of chapter 2, so I came to hate life because everything done under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless, like chasing the wind,

I came to hate all my hard work on earth, for I must leave to others everything I've earned, and who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish. Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless! So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world. Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn't worked for it. This, too, is meaningless.

a great tragedy. You see him, man, you can work all your life to climb and achieve and accumulate all kinds of stuff, and you're still going to die and leave it to people who may or may not appreciate it or take care of it, and it just perpetuates this unhealthy generational cycle. Now, in Solomon's case, you might imagine he had a very strained relationship with his sons. You talk about kids who had everything they could want growing up, everything except, and engaged dad and some godly character. And when Solomon dies, they end up tearing the kingdom of Israel apart.

I mean, you can almost hear the regret and the words as he writes here, almost like he knows, like he knows it's going to happen. I mean, you can pour some of your best energy into your work, and you should. Excellence honors God. But if you're looking for accomplishments to be the foundation upon which to build a great life, if you're looking for titles and trophies and corner offices and fat portfolios and corporate jets and approval and fame and applause to be the primary, source of your happiness, Solomon says, think again, it's Havill, it's empty, it's meaningless,

it's like chasing the wind. You know, reading through Solomon's words again, I couldn't help but think how the shadow side of success is another one of those slow fades that can take so many of us down. I've thought about how I've seen this play out my own life. We start chasing the wind when we begin to allow performance to define us. I mean, if we're not careful, what we do, and how we perform what we do becomes our identity. That was Solomon's deal. His identity was no longer a man chosen, blessed, and radically loved by God. He was no longer humbly dependent upon God for wisdom and strength.

I mean, come on. He was the king. He was the man. He was strong. He was rich. He was powerful. He was admired. And he let his self-driven success steal away his true identity.

And what he did became who he was. You know when men first meet each other, what is often the first thing we ask each other? So, what do you do, right? It's not about who we are, but about what you do. And what you do and how well you do it tends to define who you are. I mean, I have talked with plenty of retired guys. They become victims of this kind of identity theft. They work all their lives, are known by their title, their position, their craft, their skill level,

and when they retire are no longer able to perform at the same level, they just don't know who they are anymore. Their whole identity was wrapped up in what they did, how they performed. That's how they were measured. That's how success was defined. And this performance-driven identity theft starts at a very young age. I mean, parents, even well-meaning parents, begin to equate approval with how well a kid performs. They don't really mean to do that at all, but to a kid, sometimes love seems,

like it's based on how well did I do what I did. Then there are those parents who crank up the expectation to a whole other level and really do equate love and acceptance with performance. And they perpetuate this unhealthy generational cycle that perhaps they have been in all of their life as well, and they start to live vicariously through their kids. I didn't achieve success with this, but you know what, they're going to. And when they achieve, then I will finally feel successful. You ever sat at a park or playground full of toddlers and kind of eaves draw to the parents and grandparent conversations. When did she start walking?

Well, three months. Wow, that's great. My daughter can say her ABCs in five months. Yeah, but she's only two. She's already reading. Oh, mine too, she's already an author. I mean, it's just crazy. These lyrics have haunted me for years now.

But not as much as for some of you who maybe have lived these lyrics. It's the old song by Alanis Morissette called Perfect. I'll try to live through you. I'll make you what I never was. If you're the best, then maybe so am I. Compared to him, compared to her, I'm doing this for your own good, you'll make up for one eye blue.

What's the problem? Why are you crying? Be a good girl. Push a little farther now. That wasn't fast enough to make us happy. We'll love you just the way you are. If you're perfect. You know, most workaholics grew up in a performance-oriented environment where acceptance

and love was earned. And the love need in kids is so strong that if you have to perform, if you have to produce and compete and excel and climb and be perfect to get approval, you will do just about whatever it takes to get that love. So fast forward, and you'll find that man or that woman still chasing, still producing, still striving, still performing to hear in their adult years what they seldom heard growing up. You are loved. You don't have to be perfect. You are so special. You are brilliant. You are good. You're important. I am so proud of you. And starve for unconditional love that man or woman says even subconsciously, I feel like a nobody.

And I hate that feeling. And I am going to be somebody. And I'm going to prove to everybody that I am a somebody. If it takes long hours, if it takes seven days a week, if it costs me my health, my marriage, my kids, my friendship, my soul. I'm willing to pay that price because I can't stand feeling like a nobody. So I'm going to perform, produce, earn, accumulate, strive, drive, and press, and I'm going to win. When I make management, then I'll be seen as important. When I'm number one in my class of school, then my parents will finally be proud.

When I make varsity, when I make the travel squad, when I make the All-Star team, then I'll be admired. When I make a boatload of money, then I'll be seen as secure. When I go to a certain level at what I do, then I'll finally be able to be seen as valuable, acceptable, worthy, significant. Finally, I'll be loved. And I don't know, but maybe you need to do what I had to do and examine why you do, why you do. And how you might be letting performance determine your worth and your identity. and how this is just another attempt at you and me trying to cram a square peg into the round hole of her heart. Solomon says, you do that. It's just, it's Habel. It's meaningless. It's chasing after the wind.

So what do you say we let God define us through what Jesus has done today? Relax in his approval today. What you do is not who you are. You don't have to strive so hard to be something you already are, accept it. See you tomorrow. Have a great weekend. 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.comptych slash daily drive.