Latest / Time with God with John North / Growing Closer To God Through Intentional Relationships Pt. 4

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Growing Closer To God Through Intentional Relationships Pt. 4 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. As we start this day, just think about
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  Speaker 1: the place God has in your life. Do you know
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  Speaker 1: that when you put God at the centre of your life,
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  Speaker 1: God gets deeply involved in your life. He reveals Himself
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  Speaker 1: to you more as you spend time with Him in
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  Speaker 1: His word, and He starts to change you on the inside.
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  Speaker 1: As His Holy Spirit goes to work in your inner
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  Speaker 1: life and he starts to work through you in the
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  Speaker 1: lives of the people around you, there's nothing better than
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  Speaker 1: a life with God at the centre of it, and
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  Speaker 1: The foundation of that is your daily time with God
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  Speaker 1: in His word, the Bible. We start each weekday morning
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  Speaker 1: at this time with you by spending time with God
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible, and we're talking all this week about
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  Speaker 1: how to grow closer to God through intentional relationships with
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  Speaker 1: other people.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen how important it is to put accountability into
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  Speaker 1: those relationships where you find one or two people that
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  Speaker 1: you can just meet with each week and be accountable
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  Speaker 1: to about how your life's going, what you're struggling with,
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  Speaker 1: the sin you're struggling with, but also the things God's
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  Speaker 1: saying to you in His word. You're praying for one another.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen also how important it is to build a
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  Speaker 1: group of friends around you who all want to grow
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  Speaker 1: closer to God, and as you spend time together talking
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  Speaker 1: together and praying together, you all grow together.
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  Speaker 1: Then we saw yesterday that you also need to find
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  Speaker 1: someone who's a Christian, who's less far along the journey
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  Speaker 1: than you are, that you can invest in to help
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  Speaker 1: them grow. You will grow through that experience as well today.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the lesson for us. Look for non-Christians in your
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  Speaker 1: life who are keen to know more about God and
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  Speaker 1: the Bible and get close to them to help them
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  Speaker 1: encounter Jesus. You know, Jesus was always looking for the
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  Speaker 1: people who were keen to know more about God or
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  Speaker 1: to get right with God, and he spent time with them.
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  Speaker 1: You remember in John chapter 3 it says there was
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  Speaker 1: a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of
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  Speaker 1: the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and
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  Speaker 1: said to him, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher come
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  Speaker 1: from God, for no one can do these signs that
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  Speaker 1: you do unless God is with him. Well, Jesus recognised immediately,
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  Speaker 1: although this man was a religious man, he didn't really
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  Speaker 1: have a living relationship with God.
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  Speaker 1: And he needed to understand that and to know how
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  Speaker 1: to get right with God, so he immediately engaged in
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  Speaker 1: the conversation with him to help him turn his life
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  Speaker 1: over to God.
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  Speaker 1: In the next chapter he is resting by the well
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  Speaker 1: and the woman at the well comes up and immediately
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  Speaker 1: a conversation begins and Jesus tests the water with a
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  Speaker 1: couple of statements to see if this woman is hungry
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  Speaker 1: to know more about God and
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  Speaker 1: The Bible and to get closer to God. Well, that
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  Speaker 1: leads to an amazing conversation. I've found in my life
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  Speaker 1: that this simple process of throwing out a few comments
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  Speaker 1: that help a person if they are hungry to know
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  Speaker 1: about God, know there's an open door here, and they
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  Speaker 1: will then ask me something or say something about the
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  Speaker 1: statement I've made, and that just opens up a conversation.
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  Speaker 1: Well, as you go through life and you engage with
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  Speaker 1: the people in your life who are a regular part
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  Speaker 1: of your life who don't know God yet, to just
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  Speaker 1: throw out some statements that invite them to go into
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  Speaker 1: the conversation, they'll let you know if they're hungry for more, right?
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  Speaker 1: This is a way to live your life, to represent
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  Speaker 1: God with the people in your life when you sit
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  Speaker 1: down on the train.
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  Speaker 1: And the person next to you doesn't have their earpods on.
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  Speaker 1: And you say hi and you start talking, just drop
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  Speaker 1: something that invites a conversation to go deeper. What you
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  Speaker 1: will be doing is just surfacing people who are already
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  Speaker 1: keen to know more about God and the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: And you will find God using you in people's lives
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  Speaker 1: in such a deep way. And you know, when you
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  Speaker 1: start inviting God to use you in other people's lives,
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  Speaker 1: you yourself grow so much closer to God. You're depending
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  Speaker 1: on Him during that conversation, you're praying about it, you're
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  Speaker 1: trusting God, you're seeing God work through you.
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  Speaker 1: You will grow as you look for non-Christians in your life,
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  Speaker 1: keen to know more about God and the Bible and
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  Speaker 1: choose to engage with them. I'm John North.
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  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.