Latest / Time with God with John North / Growing Closer To God Through Intentional Relationships Pt. 3

Transcript

Growing Closer To God Through Intentional Relationships Pt. 3 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: All this week, at this time each morning, we're talking
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: about the topic of growing closer to God through intentional relationships,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: that is, building relationships intentionally that will help you grow
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: closer to God.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Uh, we saw yesterday how important it is to build
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: accountability into those relationships, to have a set time where
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: you meet with just one or two other people and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: talk through your past week, and confess things, pray for
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: one another.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: The act of speaking openly about your struggles in life,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: even your spiritual failures, is one of the biggest motivations
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to walk with God during your week. We saw on
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Monday how important it is to have peers, good friends
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: in your life who also are wanting to really grow
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in their relationship with God and spending time together. You
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: all grow together. Here's the lesson for today.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Purposely choose other Christians that you want to have a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: spiritual impact on.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So here we're not just talking about peers who are
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: all wanting to grow together, but rather people who maybe
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: are younger Christians or earlier in the Christian journey, and
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: you want to help them grow stronger in the Lord
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: or have a more significant impact in this world. You know,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: when Jesus began his ministry, he identified people who really
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: wanted to grow closer to God.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: And he said to them, follow me.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Not long after that we read in John chapter 3
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: verse 22. After this, Jesus and His disciples went to
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the Judean countryside where he spent time with them and baptised. Well,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: what do you need to do if you intentionally want
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to have a spiritual impact on someone?
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Spend time with them. Spend intentional time with them. That is,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: set up an agreement with them. You're going to meet
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: together with them at a specific time, and you're going
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to help them grow. People who have done that with me, I,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I just flood into my mind when I talk about this.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: My dad and the time he spent with me just
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: talking about life and the things of God with me.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Johnny Miller.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: One of my lecturers in Bible College who invested time
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: with me later invited me to intern at his church
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and has been such an impact in my life even
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: since I stopped spending time with him after moving away.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Howard Hendrix, the great Bible teacher and professor at seminary,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: he spent time with me.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: He got up to spend time with me and a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: group of my friends at, I think it was 5:30
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: or 6 a.m. in the morning at a cafe each
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: week because he had no other room in his schedule.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And the impact on my life through that testimony. Dan
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: De Haan in the days of my youth and the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: time he spent with me upon moving back to Australia,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Lee Brown for many years invested in me, had strategic
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: conversations with me about my life and ministry. I think
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: then of the people that I have done this with.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Uh, Ken and Scott Temple, two brothers who came to
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Christ in high school days, and I began meeting with
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: them and having Bible study with them and discipling them.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Later, they started a Bible study in their garage apartment
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: with a bunch of other guys in uni, and I started.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Leading and discipling that group of guys, and when we
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: lived in Epping here in Sydney, we had a Bible
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: study group that met in our home, my wife and I,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and we really focused intentionally on helping that group grow
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in the Lord. We became so close with them. I
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: think of, uh, the ministry of power to Change and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Long history I've had of investing into their leaders, their students,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: through speaking at conferences and spending time individually with different leaders.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I just, I've been so enriched in my life through
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: having chosen other Christians that I want to have a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: spiritual impact on and then watching how God works in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: their lives. You will too. I'm John North.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.