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Transcript

Following Jesus Pt. 4 · Time with God with John North

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  Speaker 1: Good morning. All this week, at this time, each weekday morning,
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  Speaker 1: we stopped to spend some time with God, opening the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: listening to Him, inviting Him to speak into our personal lives,
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  Speaker 1: and then responding to him and saying, OK, Lord, that's
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  Speaker 1: what I want for my life.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's how you grow as a Christian. That's how
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  Speaker 1: you get to know God better, listening to Him, responding
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  Speaker 1: to Him, and obeying Him.
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  Speaker 1: We're asking the question this week, what does it really
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  Speaker 1: mean to follow Jesus? We saw on Monday, it starts
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  Speaker 1: with turning away from the other things that you've been
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  Speaker 1: pursuing in life to try and find meaning, and turning
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  Speaker 1: to Jesus and saying, OK, I've tried everything else, I
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  Speaker 1: can't keep doing those things and thinking it's going to
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  Speaker 1: be different. I choose to follow you.
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  Speaker 1: That's the starting point. Secondly, on Tuesday, we said the
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  Speaker 1: next step in following Jesus is to spend focused time
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  Speaker 1: with Him, remembering He is risen, he's alive, he is
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  Speaker 1: there with you. You do that by opening your Bible,
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  Speaker 1: reading about Him, listening to what he said, and patterning
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  Speaker 1: your life around his life.
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  Speaker 1: Yesterday we saw that really following Jesus means following Him
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  Speaker 1: wherever he leads your life, obeying Him, putting his agenda
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  Speaker 1: before your own agenda, not being a casual Christian, not
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  Speaker 1: living a lukewarm life, but being willing to give things
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  Speaker 1: up for Jesus and truly start following Him. Today, the
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  Speaker 1: answer to that question, what does it really mean to
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  Speaker 1: follow Jesus, is this.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to cost you.
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  Speaker 1: So count the cost before committing. Let me read you
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  Speaker 1: from the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of
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  Speaker 1: the Bible, chapter 14, starting in verse 25. It says,
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  Speaker 1: now great crowds accompanied Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And he turned and said to them, If any one
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  Speaker 1: comes to me and does not hate his own father
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  Speaker 1: and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes,
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  Speaker 1: and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
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  Speaker 1: Whoever does not bear his own cross.
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  Speaker 1: And come after me cannot be my disciple, for which
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  Speaker 1: of you desiring to build a tower does not first
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  Speaker 1: sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough
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  Speaker 1: to complete it? Otherwise, when he's laid a foundation, is
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  Speaker 1: not able to finish, all who see it begin to
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  Speaker 1: mock him, saying, Ha, this man began to build and
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  Speaker 1: was not able to finish.
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  Speaker 1: Or what king going out to encounter another king in
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  Speaker 1: war will not first sit down and deliberate whether he
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  Speaker 1: is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against
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  Speaker 1: him with 20,000, and if not, while the other is
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  Speaker 1: yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and
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  Speaker 1: asks for terms of peace.
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  Speaker 1: So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce
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  Speaker 1: all that he has cannot be my disciple.
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  Speaker 1: In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus said, Do not think that
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  Speaker 1: I have come to bring peace to the earth. I
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  Speaker 1: have not come to bring peace, but a sword, for
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  Speaker 1: I have come to set a man against his father
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  Speaker 1: and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against
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  Speaker 1: her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of
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  Speaker 1: his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than
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  Speaker 1: me is not worthy of me.
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  Speaker 1: And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is
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  Speaker 1: not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his
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  Speaker 1: cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever
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  Speaker 1: finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his
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  Speaker 1: life for my sake will find it.
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  Speaker 1: Well, those are some very difficult words to hear and
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  Speaker 1: accept from Jesus, aren't they? If you follow me, it
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  Speaker 1: may mean that there's going to be conflict even in
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  Speaker 1: your own family. Are you prepared for that?
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  Speaker 1: If you follow me you may have to give up
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  Speaker 1: some of the things about your life. Are you ready
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  Speaker 1: for that? If you follow me, you may lose some friendships.
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  Speaker 1: Are you ready for that? Sit down and count the cost. Remember.
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  Speaker 1: When you pay for something, it costs you something, but
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  Speaker 1: you gain something as well. You know, following Jesus has
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  Speaker 1: cost me a lot of things, but do I feel
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  Speaker 1: like I've gotten a bad deal?
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  Speaker 1: Even that thought seems so ridiculous to me. I have
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  Speaker 1: gained everything. I'm John North.
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  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.