Latest / Time with God with John North / Talking To People About God Pt. 1
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Good morning. Welcome to a new week. I love opening
- 0:10Speaker 1: God's word, the Bible with you each weekday morning at
- 0:13Speaker 1: this time to just spend some time with God, because
- 0:16Speaker 1: God wants to speak into our lives, and we look
- 0:19Speaker 1: at the most practical issues.
- 0:21Speaker 1: This week I want to talk to you very specifically
- 0:25Speaker 1: if you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus, I
- 0:28Speaker 1: want to talk with you about talking with people in
- 0:31Speaker 1: your life about God. Talking with people about God.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Well, today I just want you to be aware that
- 0:42Speaker 1: people want to talk with you about God.
- 0:46Speaker 1: I know, I used to be so nervous and uptight
- 0:50Speaker 1: about starting conversations about God with people in my life,
- 0:53Speaker 1: because I had this impression in my mind that the
- 0:58Speaker 1: last thing people want to do is have a conversation
- 1:01Speaker 1: about God with a Christian. They don't want to have
- 1:04Speaker 1: God shoved down their throats. Well, let me tell you,
- 1:09Speaker 1: that's true.
- 1:11Speaker 1: Nobody wants anything shoved down their throats, but that's very
- 1:14Speaker 1: different from having a meaningful conversation about God with someone.
- 1:19Speaker 1: You think about how many of the encounters in the
- 1:23Speaker 1: Bible with people who didn't know God started because that
- 1:28Speaker 1: person wanted to have a conversation about God. You remember
- 1:32Speaker 1: the story in Acts chapter 8 about Philip on the
- 1:36Speaker 1: desert road.
- 1:38Speaker 1: Hearing that Ethiopian government official riding along in his chariot
- 1:43Speaker 1: and reading out loud from the prophet Isaiah, and Philip
- 1:48Speaker 1: just asked him, Do you understand what you're reading? And
- 1:51Speaker 1: he said, Well, how can I unless someone helps me?
- 1:54Speaker 1: And he invited Philip up into his chariot to have
- 1:57Speaker 1: a conversation about God.
- 1:59Speaker 1: You remember Jesus encountering the woman at the well and
- 2:03Speaker 1: asking for a drink, and she was amazed that he'd
- 2:06Speaker 1: reach across that cultural racial barrier to ask a Samaritan
- 2:11Speaker 1: for a drink, and she commented on that, and he said, Well,
- 2:15Speaker 1: do you know you could ask me, and I would
- 2:17Speaker 1: give you living water. Well, that simply invited her into
- 2:21Speaker 1: a deeper conversation, and it led to a beautiful conversation
- 2:25Speaker 1: about God, a conversation she wanted to have.
- 2:28Speaker 1: Zacchaeus in the Bible had heard all about Jesus, the
- 2:33Speaker 1: impact he was making on people, and he wanted to
- 2:36Speaker 1: have a conversation with Jesus. He climbed up into a
- 2:39Speaker 1: tree so he could get a view of Jesus, and
- 2:42Speaker 1: Jesus noticed him and said, Come down. I want to
- 2:45Speaker 1: talk with you. I'll come to your house and have
- 2:47Speaker 1: a conversation about God with you.
- 2:50Speaker 1: And Zacchaeus was excited to have that conversation. It changed
- 2:54Speaker 1: his life. Nicodemus came to Jesus in the evening to
- 2:59Speaker 1: have a conversation about God with him, and I want
- 3:03Speaker 1: you to know that there's so many people in your
- 3:06Speaker 1: life who want to have a meaningful conversation about God.
- 3:11Speaker 1: If you're listening this morning and you're not a Christian,
- 3:16Speaker 1: but you would love to have a conversation about God.
- 3:19Speaker 1: With Christians who really know God and you know a Christian.
- 3:25Speaker 1: Well, help out your nervous Christian friend and just straight
- 3:28Speaker 1: up ask them about God and how to start a
- 3:31Speaker 1: relationship with Him. They'll talk with you about what God
- 3:36Speaker 1: means to them. But if you're a Christian, just recognise this.
- 3:40Speaker 1: People all around you, they don't want you to cram
- 3:44Speaker 1: something down their throat, but they do want to have
- 3:47Speaker 1: conversations about God. They're.
- 3:49Speaker 1: Curious. My wife is going for physiotherapy right now, and
- 3:54Speaker 1: her physiotherapist just asked her, I hear about Easter, but
- 3:58Speaker 1: I don't know anything about it. I'm a Buddhist. Can
- 4:02Speaker 1: you tell me about Easter and what it means? Well,
- 4:06Speaker 1: that was just a simple conversation about God, right? And
- 4:09Speaker 1: she was able to share with him the beautiful story
- 4:12Speaker 1: about God reaching into our world when we can fix
- 4:14Speaker 1: our own brokenness. Jesus came into our world. He suffered.
- 4:19Speaker 1: And died on the cross to make a way for
- 4:22Speaker 1: us to have a relationship with God and explained to Him,
- 4:25Speaker 1: Him rising from the dead, and this is what we
- 4:28Speaker 1: celebrate Easter about. Well, people around you, people in your
- 4:33Speaker 1: life also want to have conversations about God. So start
- 4:39Speaker 1: talking about God with people in your life.
- 4:43Speaker 1: I'm John North.
- 4:45Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.