Latest / Time with God with John North / Together We Are Stronger Pt. 5

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Together We Are Stronger Pt. 5 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. As you head into this day, don't forget,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: number one in your life is your love for God.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: That's what Jesus said, isn't it? The greatest commandment in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: all of Scripture is to love the Lord your God
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: with all your heart and all your soul and all
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: your mind.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: God wants to transform your life, and He does that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: as you put Him first in your life, not just
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: first in your sense of morality, your sense of what
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: you should and shouldn't do, and so you try not
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to do the things you shouldn't, and you try to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: do the things you should, by all means do that too,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: but that's not what he's talking about. By putting him first,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: he means relationally first.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The most important relationship in your life. Well, what do
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: you do with the most important people in your life?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: You try to spend time with them. You try to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: get close to them. That's what you need to do
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: in your relationship with God. And spending time with God
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: means opening up your Bible, allowing Him to speak into
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  Speaker 1: your life with a listening heart.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And then responding to him, praying to him, talking to
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  Speaker 1: him about the things that he's saying to you.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I try to get you started on that journey each
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: day at this time by opening up the Bible with
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you and looking at something the Lord has said to us,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and this week our theme has been Together we are stronger.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: There has been so many beautiful passages that have pointed
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: us in that direction, and I think you will agree
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: that this is one of the great truths of life,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: that together we are stronger. Listen to how the apostle
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Paul writes to the Christians in Rome in the book
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of Romans in the Bible, chapter 1, verse 9.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: He says, for God, whom I serve in my spirit
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: you always in my prayers, making request if perhaps now
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: at last by the will of God I may succeed
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: in coming to you, for I long to see you.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: In order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you,
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  Speaker 1: that you may be established, that is, that I may
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: be encouraged together with you while among you, each of
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  Speaker 1: us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Well, isn't that awesome? Paul says, I'm longing to come
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  Speaker 1: and impart some spiritual gift to you, but really it's
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: going to happen together. It's going to be that I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: am really blessed by my time with you and you
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: are blessed by your time with me. I'm going to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: be encouraged by your faith. You're going to be encouraged
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: by mine, and we're both going to be established. We're
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: going to be built up. We will be spiritually stronger
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: for having been together.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's awesome, and that's how you should think about
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  Speaker 1: your relationship with the people in your life.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Don't just think of it as a one-way street in
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: either direction. Sometimes we just think about relationships in terms
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: of what we can get from them, what we want
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: from this person, what they are not giving me, that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I expect, that I demand, building life around me and
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: all the expectations that other people should be focused around
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: me as well. No, that's unhealthy, isn't it?
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: But it's also unhealthy to be totally focused in the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: other direction.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: To be sitting there thinking only of how you want
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: to share Jesus with this person in your life and
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  Speaker 1: all your thoughts are just about what you are going
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  Speaker 1: to communicate to them, what you want to pass on
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  Speaker 1: to them, and you're not listening to them. You're not
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: receiving from them, you're not letting it be a two-way street.
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  Speaker 1: Both ways are unhealthy.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And you need in all your relationships, whether they're with
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  Speaker 1: Christians or people who don't yet know Jesus, to be
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  Speaker 1: building this, this mutual giving into your relationships, learning from them,
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  Speaker 1: receiving from them, acknowledging and affirming their input into your life,
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  Speaker 1: and at the same time looking for ways to encourage
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  Speaker 1: them and build them up as people as well.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I'm John North.