Jesus’ 5 Invitations Pt. 3 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning and welcome to a new day, and a new day is an awesome thing. It’s a new start, and what you want to do at the start of every day is start it with God. God wants to be involved in your life, and as you take time with God each day, then God gets involved in your life. Well, the best way to do that is to open the Bible and listen to God and respond to Him.

All this week we’re talking about 5 invitations that Jesus made to people who were at different points on the journey towards God. He started off with Come and see, and we looked in John chapter 1 at those two disciples of John the Baptist who heard John saying, ‘that guy over there, I’m not even worthy to untie His sandals. I just want to point you to Him.’ And then they heard John say, ‘Look, He’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,’ and they thought, ‘We want to find out more about that person.’ They followed Him, and He made his first invitation. Come and see – the invitation to just find out more.

And as you find out more about God, as you say, I need God in my life – then Jesus’s next invitation comes as he says there in Mark chapter one, repent and believe in the gospel, just inviting you to recognize the things you’ve been chasing aren’t going to take you anywhere. And that you need God in your life. You need to get right with God, and His message then his second invitation is repent and believe in the gospel.

And today we come to the 3rd invitation. Once a person turns to God and puts their faith in Him, here’s what happens. Let’s read a bit more out of that first story again of those two people.

It says in John chapter 1 verse 38, Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are ye seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means Teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come and see. There’s that first invitation. They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

Well, they’ve spent this day with Jesus, and they’ve become believers in Jesus. They have turned from what they’ve been following to follow Jesus. Andrew first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ See, he is a believer.

He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You’re Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee, he found Philip, the other one who had come to faith in him, and said to him, Follow me. Well, this is the next step. Once you’ve turned to God and put your faith in Him, Jesus’ next invitation in your life is Follow me.

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Follow me…

That’s taking things a whole step further. It’s not just about believing in Jesus, turning to God, saying, I need you in my life, I need your help, and being born again because God’s life is now a part of your life. That’s not the end of it. That’s the beginning of a journey with Jesus. And when Jesus says, follow me, he’s saying, build a new way of life.

How do you do that? Well, it starts with your relationship with Him, taking time each morning to open your Bible. Read it with a listening heart.

And then pray, respond to God. I hear what you’re saying to me. Thank you for what you’re showing me about yourself. And then laying your day out before Him. Here are the things in my day today. I need your involvement in my life. Shape my thinking. Give me the right perspective on the challenges in my day to day.

And then also just spending time with other people who are also chasing hard after God and building their lives around Him. Bible study together with them, learning to build your life around Jesus, to choose to obey Him, to put God’s agenda first in your life, even before your own agenda for your life.

These are the things that build a life of walking with God. That’s what Jesus means when He says to you, follow me.

I’m John North.

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

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