Latest / Time with God with John North / Following Jesus Pt. 2

Transcript

Following Jesus Pt. 2 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. All this week we're asking the question, what
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: does it really mean to follow Jesus? Yesterday we saw
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: that it meant that you have to follow Him, and
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: what that means is you have to turn away from
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: other things. You're looking to, to be the answer to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: your life, to fill that void in your heart, to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: give meaning to your life. We keep chasing different things,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: trying to find what it is that'll answer that question.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We may chase after.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Uh, being financially secure, or being popular, or achieving a
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  Speaker 1: lot of things in our lives, whatever it is, the
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  Speaker 1: longer we pursue that thing, the more we clearly we
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: see that it is not going to answer that deep
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: need in my life. The only place you're going to
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  Speaker 1: find that answer is Jesus, and following Jesus begins when
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you turn away from those other things and say, Jesus,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I am going to look to you to be everything
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  Speaker 1: I need in my life, and I want to walk
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  Speaker 1: with you, love you, live with you, and live for you.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Well, the second answer to that question, what does it
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  Speaker 1: really mean to follow Jesus, is this, you need to
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  Speaker 1: spend focused time with Him.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Spend focused time with him. Well, maybe you think, well, yeah,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: but Jesus lived a long time ago, and now we've
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  Speaker 1: just got writings about Him, and we can be dedicated
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: to the church or religious things, do all of that.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: But what do you mean by spending time with Him?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: He's dead. Well, you, you're forgetting one little fact, and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: that is that he rose from the dead. He's alive today.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: He's right there with you. Did you just wake up?
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Are you lying in bed? He's there in the room.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Are you on your way to work and listening to this? Well,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Jesus is in the car with you, on the train
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: with you, on the bus with you, wherever you are.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know where you are or what you're doing,
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  Speaker 1: but the living Jesus Christ is there with you, and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: He wants you to spend focused time with Him. This
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: is the second step of following Jesus, to spend time
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  Speaker 1: with Him in the Bible soon after Jesus' first followers began.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Uh, to
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  Speaker 1: Put him first in their lives and build their lives
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: around him. It says in John chapter 3, verse 22
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible, after this, Jesus and His disciples, that's
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  Speaker 1: the people who are following Him.
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  Speaker 1: After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside,
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  Speaker 1: and he spent time with them.
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  Speaker 1: And baptised.
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  Speaker 1: Well, when you put your faith in Jesus and start
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: following Him, you have become His disciple, and the most
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: essential thing as His disciple is to spend time with Him,
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  Speaker 1: getting to know Him, learning from Him, developing your ability
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  Speaker 1: to be like Him.
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  Speaker 1: You watch him interacting with his father, with God, and
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  Speaker 1: with people in his life by reading about his life
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible and asking him to help you see
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: how you can live that way with the people around
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you and with God. You know, this last weekend, my
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: younger son got married, and as I was getting ready
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to give my speech,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I was really thinking about my very close relationship with
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: my son and what had led to that.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: And I thought about when he was just a little boy,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: well he was just my dearly loved son. But as
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  Speaker 1: he's grown older, our relationship has become more meaningful, and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: like me, he loves outdoor adventures, we've gone on big,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: difficult bush walks together, getting back just before dark, having
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: run out of water, having great experiences together, we go camping,
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  Speaker 1: we've gone mountain biking together, we spend time together.
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  Speaker 1: And in spending time together, we have deeper than the
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  Speaker 1: surface conversations with each other. We've gotten to know each other,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: our relationship is deep, it's open, and I love that relationship. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it's the same in your relationship with Jesus. If you're
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  Speaker 1: going to follow Jesus, you must learn to spend time
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  Speaker 1: with him. That just means opening your Bible.
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  Speaker 1: Reading about his life, asking him to speak to you,
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  Speaker 1: thinking about what it means for your life, what you've
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  Speaker 1: read about Jesus and inviting Jesus to continue to shape
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: your life around his life. I'm John North.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.