Talking To People About God: Part 4 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. All this week we’re talking about starting conversations about God with people in our lives. We’ve seen how there’s so many people around us who are really curious, or even searching for God and want to have conversations about God with us.

What does it mean to know God? How do you start a relationship with God? Who is Jesus? What is he all about? And how can I start a relationship with Him? These conversations are waiting to be had. People don’t want you to cram it down their throats, but they do want to have meaningful conversations with you.

Well, as we come into today, we just want to start with this idea: it’s not some big thing you prepare for and then have these conversations. Rather, you just have them as you’re going about your everyday life.

We know The Great Commission right: that Jesus gave to us as our kind of guiding principle in life as Christians on this earth. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, he said. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That is, teach people everywhere how to follow me.

This was written in and then translated into English, really in the original language, go therefore is more accurately translated. Therefore, as you go, make disciples of all nations. As you go, help people become followers of Jesus. Well, this is the great commission. This is what Jesus left us.

So as you go to work – help people become followers of Jesus. As you walk through your neighbourhood and meet your neighbours – help people become followers of Jesus. As you walk your dog and meet other dog lovers – help people become followers of Jesus. As you stand on the sidelines of your kids’ sports games – help the other people standing on the sidelines become followers of Jesus.

Not by pushing it, but by simply saying things that invite a conversation to go deeper than the surface.

My brother and his wife have been missionaries in the Philippines for many, many years. And they came and shared with our small group in our church one time about what that was like. And my brother said, well, I saw a group of Filipinos riding past my house on bikes, all dressed up in their lycra, heading out for a ride. And I thought, oh, I love riding. And so he got his bike ready, and he noted the time when they’d come by, and the next week he was out there ready, and here they came. So he just jumped in and started riding with them. He said, is it OK if I ride with you? And they said, for sure, come on. Well, they would stop and he started chatting with them on the stops, started building relationships, going deeper than the surface, having God conversations with them, and some of them were really searching for a relationship with God. They put their faith in Jesus, they became Christians with their lives changed by Jesus, and started meeting with my brother. His wife meanwhile joined a craft group that she was really interested in and started building relationships, having conversations about God with people. Found people who were searching and led them to faith in Jesus, and they started a church. Well, as they shared about this with our small group, one of the women in our small group said, well, I could do that. Yes, that’s right, you can do that as you go.

See, it’s not some big planned event. No, it’s just you as you go starting conversations that invites people to go deeper than the surface with you, and only those people who are ready for that will go deeper. And then you know, OK, this is a person that wants to have a conversation about God with me, and you just start sharing with them your experience of God, what you know about God, how to start a relationship with God.

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This is what Paul did, right, when he was in Jerusalem, he started talking to people about God. When he was on board a ship heading to a new place, he started talking to the other people on ship. When he was in prison for what he was doing, as he was there, he started talking with other prisoners about God.

When he’s chained up to guards, he would talk to the guards about God. When he’s in the market place in Athens, he’s talking to whoever happens to be in the market place about God.

Well, this is what your life can be like too, as you go through life. Just start conversations that invite people to go deeper than the surface, and those who want to have deeper conversations want to talk about God.

Then you start those conversations and deeper relationships with them.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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