Latest / Time with God with John North / Talking To People About God Pt. 5

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Talking To People About God Pt. 5 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. All this week we've been talking about how
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: as Christians we should be starting conversations about God with
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: people in our lives, and the truth is, so many
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  Speaker 1: people in your life are keen to know more about
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: God and what it means to have a relationship with Him,
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  Speaker 1: how to move forward with that, who Jesus is, what
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it's all about.
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  Speaker 1: You'll only find out who those people are, if you
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: start conversations and say something that just invites the conversation
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: to go deeper than the surface, and then wait for
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  Speaker 1: that person to show you by how they interact with it,
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  Speaker 1: whether they want to go deeper. If they do, then
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  Speaker 1: you know, here's someone who wants to have a conversation
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: about God, and you just start from there and start
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  Speaker 1: talking about God with them.
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  Speaker 1: And look for a chance to explain how you start
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a relationship with God through Jesus.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Well, today I want to go one step further and
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  Speaker 1: suggest to you that you not only do this just
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  Speaker 1: as you go and as opportunities arise, but you actually
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  Speaker 1: make a plan for how to connect with people in
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  Speaker 1: your life, particularly in your own street that you live on,
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  Speaker 1: or your own apartment building, or your own neighbourhood, or
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  Speaker 1: people at the coffee shop you go to. Something changes.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: When you make a strategy.
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  Speaker 1: When you make a plan, things start happening. You start
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  Speaker 1: acting to make a desire become reality. You want to
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  Speaker 1: talk with people around you about God. Many of them
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  Speaker 1: want to have conversations about God with you. They're curious
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  Speaker 1: or even searching for answers in their life.
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  Speaker 1: You make a plan for how to make that a reality.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: You know, in Jesus' own life, when he started out
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  Speaker 1: His ministry, he started out for quite a long time
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  Speaker 1: just having personal interactions with people and leading them to
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  Speaker 1: faith in Him as the Messiah, people whose hearts were
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  Speaker 1: open to God. He started talking about God with them.
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  Speaker 1: He started explaining that he was the Messiah. They were
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  Speaker 1: all Jews waiting for the Messiah.
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  Speaker 1: And he helped them come to faith in him as
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  Speaker 1: the Messiah who would help them have a good relationship
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  Speaker 1: with God.
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  Speaker 1: Well, after almost a year and a half of that,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus then said, I'm going to be strategic about this.
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  Speaker 1: It's not just about my random encounters with people. I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to form a strategy. And so he approached 4
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  Speaker 1: of the people who'd been followers for more than a year.
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  Speaker 1: They were brothers involved in a fishing business, and he
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  Speaker 1: said to them, Follow me full time now, and I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to teach you to be fishers of men, just
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  Speaker 1: like I have been doing.
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  Speaker 1: Well, they were so keen. And so they followed him
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  Speaker 1: and he taught them to be fishers of men. He
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  Speaker 1: kept adding people to that group. And all of a
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  Speaker 1: sudden he had a strategy for reaching far beyond just
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  Speaker 1: the as you go things, right?
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  Speaker 1: I talked to you yesterday about my brother David, who
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  Speaker 1: was a missionary in the Philippines, starting churches there. Well,
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  Speaker 1: he started one church, then he moved to another place
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  Speaker 1: and started another church where there were not really many
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  Speaker 1: Christians at all.
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  Speaker 1: And then he thought, I want to become strategic. Next
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  Speaker 1: time I plant a church, I'm going to plant a
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  Speaker 1: church that has as its vision planting more churches up
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  Speaker 1: the coast from here where there's not Christians already.
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  Speaker 1: And so he planted a church that was a church
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  Speaker 1: planting church.
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  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden it started something significant. My
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  Speaker 1: brother now is no longer living in the Philippines, but
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  Speaker 1: those last couple of churches he planted are planting other
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  Speaker 1: churches and other churches and other churches. Strategy makes all
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  Speaker 1: the difference, and you can form a strategy, right? I
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  Speaker 1: encourage you to sit down with your wife, your husband,
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  Speaker 1: and your kids and just
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  Speaker 1: Say, let's think about how we can start meaningful relationships
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  Speaker 1: with people on our street. What could we do to
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  Speaker 1: meet everyone on our street? Maybe you'll.
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  Speaker 1: Plan a neighbourhood barbecue, and it won't just be you,
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  Speaker 1: you'll invite some of your other neighbours to help you
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  Speaker 1: plan it, you'll get to know them more in that
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  Speaker 1: way as well, and maybe start deeper conversations with them
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  Speaker 1: to find out who wants to know about God, right?
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  Speaker 1: When you have your barbecue, you plan, OK, how are
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  Speaker 1: we going to go deeper than the surface with people
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  Speaker 1: as we chat with them at the barbecue.
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  Speaker 1: To find out who wants to go deeper, right? It,
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  Speaker 1: it's a strategy, but it's also just relationships. All you're
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  Speaker 1: doing is trying to find people who already want to
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  Speaker 1: go deeper than the surface with you, and that leads
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  Speaker 1: to really meaningful friendships. And that's what you want, and
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  Speaker 1: it's probably what they want too. Make a plan for
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  Speaker 1: how to connect with people in your street, in your neighbourhood.
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  Speaker 1: To find those who want to have God conversations with you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm John North.
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  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.