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Growing Closer To God Through Intentional Relationships Pt. 2 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. All this week we're talking about how to
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  Speaker 1: grow closer to God through intentional relationships, and you know
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  Speaker 1: what we mean by that word intentional, it means on purpose, right?
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  Speaker 1: You're not just letting things happen, you're choosing for things
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  Speaker 1: to happen.
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  Speaker 1: And we said yesterday it's so important to choose the friends,
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  Speaker 1: the peers, the people who you hang out with who
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  Speaker 1: are also hungry for God and wanting to grow closer
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  Speaker 1: to God. And as you get close together, you'll spend
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  Speaker 1: time talking about God, encouraging one another, and growing spiritually.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the lesson for today. Build accountability into your relationships.
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  Speaker 1: Build accountability into your relationships. Now let me first just
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  Speaker 1: give you the principle. It comes right out of John
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  Speaker 1: chapter 3, verses 19 to 21.
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  Speaker 1: It says this, and this is the judgement. The light
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  Speaker 1: has come into the world.
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  Speaker 1: And people loved the darkness rather than the light because
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  Speaker 1: their works were evil, for everyone who does wicked things
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  Speaker 1: hates the light and does not come to the light
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  Speaker 1: lest his works should be exposed.
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  Speaker 1: But whoever does what is true comes to the light
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  Speaker 1: so that it may be clearly seen that his works
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  Speaker 1: have been carried out in God. Well, we all know
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  Speaker 1: this principle, right? When you've done something that's not right,
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  Speaker 1: you don't want it to be known.
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  Speaker 1: It starts out when you're kids, of course, you don't
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  Speaker 1: want your parents to find out, but this is a
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  Speaker 1: principle of life. Things don't seem nearly as bad when
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  Speaker 1: we're doing them, right?
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  Speaker 1: In our own minds, they're not so bad in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of the action. But when they come into the light,
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  Speaker 1: then it's really clear, that was bad, that shouldn't have happened,
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  Speaker 1: and we don't like that feeling, right? So we try
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  Speaker 1: to keep those things in the dark, but spiritual growth
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  Speaker 1: happens when you start bringing those things into the light
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  Speaker 1: and seeing how ugly they are, right? And when you
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  Speaker 1: have to talk to someone else about those things,
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  Speaker 1: That's rough. And you don't want that to happen again.
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  Speaker 1: It's like positive peer pressure, encouraging you to walk with God.
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  Speaker 1: In 1 John chapter 1, starting in verse 5, here's
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  Speaker 1: what John says again. This is the message we have
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  Speaker 1: heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light.
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  Speaker 1: And in him is no darkness at all. If we
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  Speaker 1: say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness,
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  Speaker 1: we lie and do not practise the truth. But if
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  Speaker 1: we walk in the light as He Himself is in
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  Speaker 1: the light, we have fellowship with one another, you see
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  Speaker 1: the principle there, bringing things into the light with one another.
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  Speaker 1: And the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from
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  Speaker 1: all sin. If we say we have no sin, we
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  Speaker 1: are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
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  Speaker 1: But if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just
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  Speaker 1: to forgive us our sins and to cleanse.
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  Speaker 1: Us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
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  Speaker 1: we make him a liar and his word is not
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  Speaker 1: in us. Not only that, but if you say that
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  Speaker 1: you haven't sinned to Christian friends around you, everybody knows
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  Speaker 1: you're blowing smoke, right? Because it's just not true. My
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  Speaker 1: experience with accountability in my life has been so powerful
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  Speaker 1: all through my life. I've found people.
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  Speaker 1: A few other guys I can meet with each week
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  Speaker 1: and be accountable to about my spiritual journey over the
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  Speaker 1: past week. We build it around 4 questions. The first
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  Speaker 1: is we memorise scripture together, 2 verses a week, memorising
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  Speaker 1: a passage until it's done, and we quote our verses
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  Speaker 1: with one another, an easy level of accountability. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: We talk about our daily time with God during the week.
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  Speaker 1: How many days have we spent time with God in
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  Speaker 1: His word? And how did it go? Were we connecting
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  Speaker 1: with God? What is God saying to us? Third, my
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  Speaker 1: witness for Jesus during the week, who have I talked
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  Speaker 1: to about Jesus who doesn't know Him yet?
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  Speaker 1: And fourth, each one of us comes up with a
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  Speaker 1: question that is the thing we would least want to
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  Speaker 1: be asked about but most need to be asked about,
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  Speaker 1: and that can change as you gain victory in that
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  Speaker 1: area of your life over time. Doing this in my
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  Speaker 1: life has been one of the most significant factors in
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  Speaker 1: my spiritual growth, and I hope it will be so
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  Speaker 1: for you as well. I'm John North.
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  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.