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Grow Your Relationship with God Through Prayer Pt. 3 · Time with God with John North

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  Speaker 1: Good morning. We're talking this week on a topic that
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  Speaker 1: has had such a massive impact on my own life,
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  Speaker 1: my own walk through this world, my journey with God,
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  Speaker 1: and that is this growing your relationship with God through prayer.
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  Speaker 1: I can't think of anything that has had a bigger
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  Speaker 1: impact on my relationship with God than my prayer life,
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  Speaker 1: and the same is true for you. Whether your relationship
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  Speaker 1: with God is not growing at all or whether it's
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  Speaker 1: growing a lot is connected to your prayer life. Your
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  Speaker 1: relationship with God, what is a relationship? It's all about communication.
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  Speaker 1: And here we're talking this week about how to use
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  Speaker 1: your communication with God to grow your relationship with God.
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  Speaker 1: We've looked at the priority of prayer in your life,
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  Speaker 1: how it needs to be the first thing you put
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  Speaker 1: into your day, and then group the other things of
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  Speaker 1: your day around it.
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  Speaker 1: Secondly, we looked at the importance of speaking with God,
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  Speaker 1: not just to God, and what it looks like to
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  Speaker 1: listen to God and respond to Him and have a
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  Speaker 1: real conversation with God. And today I want to say
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  Speaker 1: this about growing your relationship with God through prayer.
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  Speaker 1: Obey what God is saying to you.
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  Speaker 1: Obey what God is saying to you.
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  Speaker 1: We talked yesterday about listening to God through reading the
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  Speaker 1: Bible with a heart open to hear what He's saying
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  Speaker 1: to us, thinking deeply about what we're reading, and then
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  Speaker 1: responding to God. Well, listen to what Jesus said. These
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  Speaker 1: are the final words of his sermon on the Mount
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  Speaker 1: that's so well known.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew chapter 5 through 7 are one sermon that we
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  Speaker 1: call the Sermon on the Mount, and chapter 7 ends
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  Speaker 1: with these words from Jesus starting in verse 24.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus said, Everyone then who hears these words of mine.
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  Speaker 1: And does them will be like a wise man who
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  Speaker 1: built his house on the rock.
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  Speaker 1: And the rain fell, and the floods came, so your
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  Speaker 1: life's not necessarily going to be easy if you obey God.
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  Speaker 1: The tough times will still come in your life. The
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  Speaker 1: rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew
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  Speaker 1: and beat on that house.
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  Speaker 1: But it did not fall because it had been founded
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  Speaker 1: on the rock.
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  Speaker 1: He goes on to say, and everyone who hears these
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  Speaker 1: words of mine and does not do them.
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  Speaker 1: will be like a foolish man.
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  Speaker 1: Who built his house. The 1st man's building a house
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  Speaker 1: and the 2nd man's building a house, but the 2nd
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  Speaker 1: man built his house on the sand.
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  Speaker 1: And the rain fell.
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  Speaker 1: And the floods came.
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  Speaker 1: Terrible hard times will come into both people's lives, and
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  Speaker 1: the winds blew and beat against that house.
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  Speaker 1: And it fell
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  Speaker 1: And great was the fall of it. Well, as we
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  Speaker 1: read that passage, you see that Jesus' teaching here assumes
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  Speaker 1: that you have heard Jesus' words.
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  Speaker 1: Both the wise man and the foolish man heard his words.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them
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  Speaker 1: or does not do them.
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  Speaker 1: Well, on that day there was a crowd there who
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  Speaker 1: had physically heard Jesus speaking to them. Today you are
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  Speaker 1: going to hear God speaking into your life as you
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  Speaker 1: spend prayerful time in His word, inviting God to speak
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  Speaker 1: to you. And those are some of the most beautiful
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  Speaker 1: prayer times you can have when you sense what God
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  Speaker 1: is saying to you from His word. Prayer and God's
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  Speaker 1: word go together.
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  Speaker 1: But don't just enjoy the experience of hearing from God
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  Speaker 1: as you spend time in His word. If you want
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  Speaker 1: your relationship with God to grow, you need to respond
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  Speaker 1: to what he's saying to you.
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  Speaker 1: You need to follow Jesus and obey God. Remember Jesus'
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  Speaker 1: prayer that we read yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: Father, remove this cup that is the cup of suffering
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  Speaker 1: from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.
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  Speaker 1: Well, in Jesus' story.
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  Speaker 1: Both the wise man and the foolish man hear the
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  Speaker 1: words of Jesus. The only difference is that one puts Jesus'
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  Speaker 1: words into practise.
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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.