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Transcript

Becoming A Friend of God: Part 5 · The God Who Sees You Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is so important in our friendship with God: transparency, honesty, and openness, because this is something that God desires from us.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, friend, welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're continuing our series on becoming a friend of God.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to talk about good friends demonstrate honesty and how God actually wants transparency from us.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember that there was a time where I was not transparent with the Lord.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I knew what prayers to pray, I knew what words to say that were the right words, but I wasn't great at telling him my honest thoughts and feelings because I thought somehow it would get me in trouble if I told him exactly how I felt, which is funny because we know that he knows everything, right?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I was trying to hide that and I was trying to be super right in my prayers or saying it the right way.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but God brought me to this amazing story, and um I'm actually I've actually seen this theme not just in this story, but throughout the New Testament and Jesus' ministry.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to highlight this theme to you today.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's that God wants honesty, and I'm seeing it in John 5.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So do you remember the story of the man who got healed beside the pool?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this pool was known as the sheep gate.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this man had been crippled his entire life.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I can only imagine just the desperation in his heart to be healed in this moment.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it says in John 5, starting in verse 6, when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool where the water is stirred up.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And while I'm going, another steps down before me.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming up with a lot of excuses as to why he can't get there.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Get up, take your bed and walk.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And at once the man was healed.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he took up his bed and he walked.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple uh really important things I want to highlight here.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, Jesus wanted this man to be direct with him.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: He looked right in his eyes and asked, Do you want to be healed?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants us to be transparent with him about our needs, about the things that stir us, about our feelings, about our heart and our emotions and our true requests, what we are really wanting out of a situation.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not always about what we want, obviously, it's about what God wants, but he still wants to hear what we want out of a situation and what our hearts are asking for in the deep desires of our hearts.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the second thing I want to highlight is that this man could not even directly answer Jesus.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't give him a direct answer.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: But there was still mercy and healing that took place that day.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: The man responds to Jesus with, Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Not a yes, I want to be healed.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I so desperately want to be healed.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, this man couldn't even come up with those words.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: He just came up with the words of, sir, I have no one to take me there.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus was still asking for a direct answer.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: He still wanted to know the truth in this man's heart, even though he could already see inside this man's heart.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted him to say it to him.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is so important in our friendship with God: transparency, honesty, and openness, because this is something that God desires from us.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: He wants us to actually be open and honest with him and share our true hearts.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not hold things back from him.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not think about how can I say this to not step on anyone's toes.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to worry about that with the Lord.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can tell him our transparent true heart.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not give, you know, the walk-around answer.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not give all of our excuses.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: He deserves more than that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: He deserves to know how we actually are feeling in a given situation.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And think about it, your actual true friends, like the people that really know you, um, they don't get those walk-around answers, right?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like they get the real answer.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like when you ask someone, like a real close friend, you say, How are you?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're not gonna just say, Oh, good, and then go on, like that's something you would say to an acquaintance, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: If if your true friend asks you, How are you?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: you would tell them, like, I'm not great today or I'm struggling, right?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: You would give the real answer.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if we wanna be true friends with God, we have to give him the real answer.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be transparent and give him our true hearts.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let me pray for us that we can do that this week, friends.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, thank you for this time to talk about transparency.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I see this all throughout scripture, these moments where you step in and you ask, do you want to be healed?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or, or what do you want me to do for you?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and you're getting to the heart of this person.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And just like this man beside the pool that you healed, you wanted his heart.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: You wanted to get to these years that he had been struggling, Lord.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I just pray that we can be a good friend to you and that we can show you our true heart and we can open that and not have walls around us.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that we can pray to you with openness, transparency, and with a heart surrendered to knowing that we can trust you with our full truth, with the full things going on in our emotions and our hearts.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you can handle anything that we pray or talk about with you, that that it doesn't change your love for us, that you don't think less of us, that you always see us in the way that you care and love and nurture us, Lord.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we just, we just praise you for your heart to do that and help us to be transparent with you this week.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to share our true heart with you.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, friends.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I will see you next week.