Latest / Time with God with John North / Growing Your Relationship With God Through Reading The Bible Pt. 1

Transcript

Growing Your Relationship With God Through Reading The Bible Pt. 1 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. As we head into this week, I want
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to help you grow closer to God. Each weekday morning
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: at this time, we open the Bible and listen to God.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Time with God is so foundational to everything about your
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: relationship with Him. It's how you grow closer to Him.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: And all this week I want to talk with you
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: about growing closer to God through His word, the Bible.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The Bible is called the word of God in the Bible.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It's the way God speaks to you, and I want
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to help you understand today why spending time in God's
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: word may be the most important practise you can develop
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in your Christian life. Let me just read you a
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: few verses out of Psalm 119, and if you want
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to meditate this week at any time, think more deeply
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: about spending time in God's word and its value in
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: your life, I encourage you to.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Take time and read Psalm 119. You need to carve
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: out some time because there are a lot of verses
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: in this chapter, but I just want to now read
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: to you one paragraph starting in verse 9. Here's what
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the psalmist says. How can a young man keep his
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: way pure by guarding it according to your word? With
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: my whole heart, I seek you.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: up your word in my heart that I might not
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: sin against you. Blessed are You, O Lord. Teach me
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: your statutes with my lips. I declare all the rules
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: of your mouth in the way of your testimonies. I
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: delight as much as in all riches.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: will not forget your word. Well, what a great paragraph
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: on the significance of spending time with God in His word.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Here's some of the reasons why spending time in His
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: word may be the most important practise you can develop
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: in your Christian life. Number one, it's how you come
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to understand God. It's His word because he's speaking. He's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: revealing Himself. He's letting you get to know Him.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: You know, we so often come to life and the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: circumstances of our lives with such a wrong picture of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: what God is like. Something difficult happens in our lives
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and we automatically think, oh, God doesn't love me. What,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: what have I done wrong that God's getting back at me? Well,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that's such a wrong.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Understanding of God. How would you know that? Only by
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: spending time in His word, where He reveals to you
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: what he's like, and you can read all these stories
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of people in the Bible who followed God, loved God,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: difficult things came into their lives. It was a part
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: of God's plan.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: And it changes your understanding of what God is like.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: So many times, all we think about, all we hear
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: at Bible studies, sometimes even from church, is this mamby
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: pamby view of God, where, where God is the politically
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: correct God who only ever says what makes you feel good.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And there's nothing challenging or painful about a relationship with God. Well,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that's not the God of the Bible. How will you
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: know what God is like through the Bible? Secondly, God's
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: word is how God speaks to you personally about your life.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: God speaks right into your life, and so often as
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you open the Bible in your daily time with Him,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: things come out of your Bible reading and you're like,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: how in the world could I have just happened to
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: land on this verse today.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: How in the world did John North know to speak
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: on this in the morning devotions? I mean, God is
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: speaking to me personally. Well, that's what he does through
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: His word. Third, the truth of God's word transforms you.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: By the renewing of your mind. As it changes the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: way you understand yourself, the way you understand God, as
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you start to think about the value of spiritual things
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: more than material things, it changes your life. It changes
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the way you interact with people. The Bible is your
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: only sure guide to living your life. Don't miss out
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: on what God wants to do in your life through
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: His word. I'm John North.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.