Latest / Time with God with John North / Not a Recreational Religion Part 5

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Not a Recreational Religion Part 5 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. I wonder if you realise how much God
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: wants to be involved in your life. God is not
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: just some distant being somewhere in the universe or outside
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the universe who is watching what's happening here in your
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: life just sort of as an interested bystander or like.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Watching a show on TV to see what happens. No,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: God is here in your life with you right now,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: even as you're listening this morning. He is there in
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: your room with you or in your car with you,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: or wherever you are. He is there and not wanting
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to just see what's happening, but wanting to be.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Totally involved in your life and maybe you think, well,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I would kind of like for God to be involved
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: in my life. There's several things I'd like Him to
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: do for me. Well, just remember that life and the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Christian life is not simply about getting God on the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: page with your agenda for your life.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: No, God wants you to get on the page with
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: His agenda for your life, and this is what it
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: means to have a living relationship with God. It's recognising
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: that He is God and I'm not, and that it's
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: my job to find out what His agenda is for
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: my life and then to be totally committed to that,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and I can only do that if each day I'm
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: listening to Him.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Paying attention to what he's saying to me. Reading the Bible, saying, God,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: what does this mean for my life, and then building
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: my life around that. And if you have been evaluating
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: your relationship with God based on what He has done
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: for you, what He's doing in your life today and tomorrow, well,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I suggest that you reevaluate how you measure your Christian
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: life because the Christian life is not a recreational religion.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It's not something that just adds on to what you
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: already are doing and planning for your life. The Christian
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: life works when you go all in.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: In your commitment to God, this is the way God
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: has designed the Christian life, and I guarantee that you're
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: frustrated in your relationship with God and in your Christian
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: life wondering what's gone wrong, why it's not working for
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: you like it works for some other people if you
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: have not put God at the centre of your life.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Listen to how the apostle Paul describes his walk with God.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: He says this in his 2nd Letter to the Corinthians
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: in the Bible in chapter 5, verse 14.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: He says for the love of Christ controls us.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and he died for all. That's you, right? Jesus died
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: for you to make a way for you to start
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: this amazing relationship with God.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: But listen to this. He died for all, so that
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: they who live, that's you, might no longer live for
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: themselves but for him who died and rose again on
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: their behalf.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: And Paul then says, Well, what does that look like
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: if you don't live for yourself, but you live for God?
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: He goes on to say, therefore, from now on we
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: recognise no one according to the flesh.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Because we live for God, we know God wants to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: use us in the lives of the people around us,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: so we don't just think of these people in physical
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: terms or how they come across er in a conversation
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: with us. We think about them and where they are spiritually,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: what's going on in their inner life, how do they
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: need to meet God.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: He says we recognise no one according to the flesh
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: even though we have known Christ according to the flesh.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Now we know Him in this way no longer. If
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: any one is in Christ, he's a new creature. The
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: old things passed away. New things have come, and these
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: new things are from God who reconciled us to Himself
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: through Christ and then gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I just want to remind you today that God has
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: a plan for you as a Christian. He has got
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: involved in your life. He has changed your life. He's
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: forgiven you. He's removed the barriers that stood between you
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: and Him. He's enabled you to start a whole new
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: way of life with Him in it. Old things passed away.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: New things have come.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: But now as you build your life around God and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: look for His involvement in your life, recognise that comes
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: as you embrace His purpose through you in the lives
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of the people around you.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: As you consider the lives of the people in your family,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the lives of people in your neighbourhood, people that you
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: work with, what is going on in their inner life,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: ask them questions that help them to open up and
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: let you see the pain, the brokenness that's in their lives,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: because only Jesus Christ can fix that. He designed their lives,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and He can fix their lives as He's doing in
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: your life.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: So build your life around God and ask Him to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: use you in the lives of people around you. This
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: is the Christian life. It's not a recreational religion.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I'm John North.