WEBVTT 00:00:00.260 --> 00:00:01.120 How are you guys doing this morning? 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:03.660 Awesome. 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:09.280 We got one doing well, everyone else is just ready to zone out for the rest of the sermon. 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:10.380 I get it. 00:00:10.420 --> 00:00:10.860 I get it. 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:11.360 It's me. 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:12.060 It's not Nathaniel. 00:00:13.590 --> 00:00:20.860 Hopefully, I don't drop that Corona again, and hopefully, my hope is that we learn something today 00:00:20.860 --> 00:00:24.400 that transforms our hearts and minds. 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:27.170 To begin, I want to ask you guys a question. 00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:33.620 The message is going to be on the word of God, obviously. 00:00:33.620 --> 00:00:36.020 If you've guessed that already, you're pretty smart. 00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:42.260 You're ahead of the game, but how many of you had ever read the Bible from front to back? 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:44.370 Raise of hands? 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:45.430 All right, we got a few. 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:46.180 Awesome. 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:52.460 Well, when I was a kid, I was challenged to read my Bible every day. 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:58.320 For some reason, I was a super undisciplined kid growing up. 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:02.900 All I wanted to do was go outside, run in the woods, and get muddy and dirty. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:10.320 My mom called me Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown because I was just constantly dirty all the time and never did anything, but for some 00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:17.860 reason, I took this challenge really important because the guy who told me was at a camp and he was like, "This 00:01:17.860 --> 00:01:20.000 book can transform your life. 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:25.880 It can teach you how to live, and it can teach you what is true." I was like "You know what? 00:01:26.380 --> 00:01:27.170 I want to know how to live. 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:29.570 I want to know the truth, so I'm going to read my Bible every day. 00:01:30.100 --> 00:01:37.280 When I first started, I opened up my Bible and was just flipped open to my whatever page, and was like, "Holy Spirit, guide me," 00:01:37.820 --> 00:01:39.240 did this mystical... 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.430 Just flipped open the pages and see what would come of it. 00:01:44.940 --> 00:01:51.870 I did that for a little while, but as I got older, I started thinking, "You know what? 00:01:53.220 --> 00:02:00.500 If this is my faith, if this is something that I'm going to have as a foundation for my life, 00:02:01.620 --> 00:02:08.820 I want to know what's inside, because if I don't know what's inside of it, how could I really say it's what I believe 00:02:08.820 --> 00:02:11.300 in?" I didn't want glimpses anymore. 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:12.350 I wanted the full picture. 00:02:13.340 --> 00:02:20.590 I was like 11, 12, I opened the Bible to Genesis 1:1, 00:02:22.780 --> 00:02:28.700 and I started reading those beautiful lines of "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:02:28.940 --> 00:02:35.640 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:40.120 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 00:02:41.320 --> 00:02:46.000 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:54.220 God called the light day, and the darkness, He called night, and there was evening and there was morning, one 00:02:54.220 --> 00:03:01.360 day." The song of creation begins, and if you were to continue to 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:08.620 listen or read the rest of the book, the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, you would find this repetition, this 00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:15.860 song of creation of God's word coming and speaking something into being 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:21.980 which is usually light or life, and that coming forth, and then God saying that it is good. 00:03:23.140 --> 00:03:29.820 When He comes to man, He breathes into man, which is this intimate act of being close to someone. 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:37.040 If you've ever been close enough to feel someone's breath, you're usually pretty close or it's a pretty awkward game of chicken, either 00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:37.360 one. 00:03:38.740 --> 00:03:45.740 This idea of God speaking into being and these things coming out 00:03:45.740 --> 00:03:50.300 of light, God creating the stars, creating the moon, creating the sun. 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:53.220 He creates light, and then He creates life. 00:03:53.260 --> 00:03:54.080 He creates the birds. 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:57.840 He creates the creepy-crawlies, the things on the ground. 00:03:57.880 --> 00:03:58.480 He creates us. 00:03:58.540 --> 00:04:01.140 He creates all these things with His word. 00:04:01.140 --> 00:04:08.240 I always thought that was kind of weird because if I 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:14.480 was writing the book of Scriptures, I probably would've said, "God crafted everything. 00:04:14.570 --> 00:04:19.670 He made it with His hands," because, usually, when I make something, I make something with my hands. 00:04:20.100 --> 00:04:20.200 Right? 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:27.260 God chiseled away the earth and made mountains and stuff. 00:04:27.340 --> 00:04:28.640 I thought that would be pretty cool. 00:04:29.340 --> 00:04:36.530 I also thought it would be pretty cool if God just thought all these things into existence, like He just thinks it, and then it comes into being, 00:04:37.340 --> 00:04:44.340 but there is something very special and something very important that the writer of Genesis is getting at 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:51.660 when he keeps talking about the word of God, speaking and light and life coming 00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:53.090 in into existence. 00:04:54.960 --> 00:05:01.520 11 and 12-year-old Lincoln had no idea that this was important. 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:09.000 I had no idea until many years later that this chapter, Genesis 1, 00:05:09.640 --> 00:05:11.040 was not just something periphery. 00:05:11.060 --> 00:05:18.540 It wasn't just a story of how the earth was made, but I was something central to the idea and central to the theme 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:23.440 of Scripture and the theme of what the word of God is. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:29.390 It's essential for mine and yours existence. 00:05:32.020 --> 00:05:35.000 What do I mean by this? 00:05:35.140 --> 00:05:38.800 Well, who is familiar with the idea of foreshadowing? 00:05:40.420 --> 00:05:42.640 If you're, not, it's okay. 00:05:42.640 --> 00:05:43.640 I'll try to explain it. 00:05:44.200 --> 00:05:51.340 Foreshadowing is something that's done in film or in a book, and what it is, it's a signal 00:05:51.340 --> 00:05:55.260 or a clue or a hint to what's going to happen the rest of the story. 00:05:56.970 --> 00:06:04.180 Why I love this so much is because when someone does it, when someone uses foreshadowing super 00:06:04.180 --> 00:06:11.360 well, you can tell that they put a lot of thought and effort, and they planned everything out 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:12.140 beforehand. 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:19.570 It's not just something that's thrown together, mumbo jumbo, random, just happens, but it's something that is designed. 00:06:20.580 --> 00:06:25.000 My favorite director is Christopher Nolan. 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:29.440 I don't know if you guys know who that is, but he's done some of my favorite films. 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:35.620 He's done Inception, Interstellar, The Dark Knight trilogy, and a bunch of other films. 00:06:36.020 --> 00:06:43.460 I'm not necessarily saying you have to see them but I love them because he really uses the idea of foreshadowing 00:06:43.460 --> 00:06:45.900 super well in his films. 00:06:45.900 --> 00:06:47.900 They're really well thought out. 00:06:48.940 --> 00:06:56.100 My favorite of The Dark Knight trilogy, I know most of you will say The Dark Knight, but 00:06:56.100 --> 00:06:58.820 Batman Begins is my favorite. 00:06:58.960 --> 00:07:03.220 I think it's objectively better, just saying, personally. 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:11.040 I mean, maybe you guys have a different idea, but if you can think back to 2005, rewind 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:16.760 back there, some of you may not have been alive then, or one or two years old, but think back. 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:18.060 George W. 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:20.640 Bush was still in the middle of his presidency. 00:07:21.700 --> 00:07:24.780 Lincoln, he was entering into middle school. 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:30.420 I think, I don't know if I want to think about this anymore, but we'll stay there. 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:36.620 You're watching Batman Begins and Bruce and Rachel are playing hide and go seek. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:43.910 They're running around, looking for each other, and Bruce goes and he hides on top of this well, 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:48.920 and there's these really old boards, and he ends up falling through the boards. 00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:57.060 He lands in this well, in this scary dark well, and he breaks his arm, 00:07:57.060 --> 00:07:58.270 and I think he breaks his leg. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:06.160 He's looking down this tunnel that he can't see because it's just dark, and then bats come, and 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:08.480 they traumatize him. 00:08:08.580 --> 00:08:11.540 You can see that he's very scared. 00:08:11.540 --> 00:08:12.260 He's frightened. 00:08:12.660 --> 00:08:14.050 Then his dad comes. 00:08:14.540 --> 00:08:18.240 He saves him, and he brings him up and starts... 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:23.620 He's a doctor, so he starts bringing him into the house and he's going to fix him. 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:27.840 Before he does that, he says, "Why do we fall, Bruce? 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:32.970 So that we can learn to pick ourselves back up again." That's what happens. 00:08:33.659 --> 00:08:39.419 That's the first scene in the movie, and that is what sets up the rest of the movie. 00:08:39.659 --> 00:08:39.780 Right? 00:08:40.539 --> 00:08:47.740 It's Bruce keeps falling and he learns to pick himself back up again, and he becomes stronger 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:48.320 through that. 00:08:48.380 --> 00:08:50.130 What doesn't kill him makes him stronger. 00:08:51.140 --> 00:08:53.960 His parents die. 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:57.220 He wants to kill the person who killed them. 00:08:57.740 --> 00:09:02.840 He becomes a thief to live and all these things eventually make him who he is. 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:04.240 He's Batman. 00:09:04.260 --> 00:09:04.380 Right? 00:09:04.680 --> 00:09:11.860 When he loses everything, when the city is about to be destroyed, he falls his hardest, and 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:13.640 then he remembers who he is. 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:14.700 He's like, "You know what? 00:09:14.780 --> 00:09:21.890 I've learned to pick myself up again," and he goes and saves the day and that's the movie hero 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:24.950 type thing, superhero type thing. 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:27.400 What I love about that. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:34.740 Is that it's this consistent theme that is foreshadowed in the very first scene of the movie, and that is 00:09:34.740 --> 00:09:39.320 exactly what is happening here in Genesis 1. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:47.740 I think, first of all, that God, the author of Scripture, the author of life, Christopher 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:52.560 Nolan doesn't hold a candle to what God does in Scripture. 00:09:52.820 --> 00:10:00.060 No writer, whether that's Charles Dickens or whoever you can think, they don't hold a candle to 00:10:00.060 --> 00:10:05.460 the beautiful writing and the beautiful authorship of God. 00:10:06.280 --> 00:10:10.380 We discover that truth when we open and read His word. 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:21.120 Some of you guys might be going, "Okay, foreshadowing, Genesis 1, what does this have 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:28.200 to do with me, or why is this important?" Well, how many of you guys are 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:29.880 parents or who have had parents? 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:31.660 Everyone could raise their hand. 00:10:31.800 --> 00:10:32.890 You don't really need. 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:41.500 If you care about someone, or if they care about you repeat things over 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:44.480 and over to them so that they can know what is important. 00:10:44.780 --> 00:10:44.880 Right? 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:48.960 For me, it was always school and grades. 00:10:50.280 --> 00:10:57.260 Partially, you repeat things because they don't listen, but another part is that it's important. 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:05.280 If you say something over and over again, it has the idea of this is important and it carries weight, and 00:11:05.280 --> 00:11:07.980 they desire for us to know the truth. 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:09.310 That's why it's repeated. 00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:19.060 If there's essential theme that is brought up time and time again in Scripture foreshadowed in the first chapter, then 00:11:19.060 --> 00:11:26.890 it has weight, it has an importance for us as His people to understand, but not just to understand, but to act upon. 00:11:30.180 --> 00:11:33.580 What is this foreshadowed idea? 00:11:33.580 --> 00:11:41.020 It's that the word of God is the true source, the only source of 00:11:41.020 --> 00:11:42.600 light and life. 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:48.820 The word of God is the only source for light and life. 00:11:49.180 --> 00:11:56.700 If you desire to be filled with light and life, the word of God is essential for you to 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:57.800 know. 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:06.860 Okay, that makes sense when talking about Genesis 1, Lincoln, I understand that God spoke and 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:08.760 everything came into existence. 00:12:08.820 --> 00:12:15.700 That makes sense, but for this to be what I said it to be, it has to be true throughout all of God's word. 00:12:17.300 --> 00:12:20.180 What happens after Genesis 1? 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:28.580 Well, Adam and Eve get deceived by Satan, the snake, and he twists 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:31.540 the words of God and he's like, "You know what? 00:12:31.780 --> 00:12:37.420 Did God really say that?" Then Eve takes the bite, and then Adam is like, "Oh, well, that looks good. 00:12:37.620 --> 00:12:38.800 I'll try that." Right? 00:12:39.180 --> 00:12:39.520 He does that. 00:12:39.900 --> 00:12:40.060 Idiot. 00:12:40.940 --> 00:12:43.380 I would've done the same thing, so I don't know why I'm calling him an idiot. 00:12:44.500 --> 00:12:50.260 Anyways, anyways, Cain and Abel happens, and Cain kills his brother. 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:58.560 The Bible describes this time as being so wicked, so evil that it says that 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:05.740 the thoughts of all people where evil continuously, and that the violence of the times where so great that it filled the whole 00:13:05.740 --> 00:13:06.220 earth. 00:13:06.860 --> 00:13:14.960 God, the one who created light and life, Who breathed men into existence sees men killing 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:22.040 each other, the sacred thing that He made in His image, and they're killing each other, and darkness is 00:13:22.660 --> 00:13:24.620 overfilling the whole earth. 00:13:24.760 --> 00:13:27.280 The whole earth is filled with darkness and death. 00:13:29.260 --> 00:13:34.660 God goes to Noah, and He's like, "You're going to build an ark. 00:13:35.540 --> 00:13:36.820 You're going to save your family. 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:45.920 You're going to save the creatures that I created, and there's going to be a new world." God 00:13:45.920 --> 00:13:52.940 gives him this truth to guide Noah and to save the lives of his 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:54.940 family and the animals. 00:13:56.460 --> 00:14:03.500 If you read the Old Testament, if you read from front to back of the Old Testament, 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:04.760 you'd detect this pattern. 00:14:04.900 --> 00:14:12.080 It's like in the days of such-and-such a prophet, whether that be Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jeremiah, the 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:19.500 word of the Lord came to Abraham, Isaac, Jeremiah, whoever it is, and then it describes what 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:19.600 happened. 00:14:21.800 --> 00:14:27.600 What happens usually is that the word of God comes, and it transforms lives. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:35.240 It changes the landscape of everything, and miraculous things come into being because of that, whether 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:43.260 that's Abraham who is called by God to leave his family, leave all he has and go to the 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.240 Promised Land, from Ur to the Promised Land. 00:14:46.680 --> 00:14:53.980 When him and his wife, Sarah, are over a hundred years old and almost dead, God brings life 00:14:53.980 --> 00:15:01.360 from which there was death so that he would be the father of many nations and eventually, 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:06.000 the Messiah, the seed would come to bless all the nations of the earth. 00:15:06.400 --> 00:15:13.600 The years of the Lord's silence in between Joseph and Moses, where 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:20.620 the word of God didn't come, and the people of God end up being slaves in Egypt and are oppressed, and 00:15:20.620 --> 00:15:25.230 are in a land where all they do is work for the pharaoh. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:31.430 The word of God comes to Moses through a burning bush. 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:40.600 God comes in there miraculously and leads His people out of the land of Egypt and into the 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:47.840 Promised Land, delivering them from the oppression 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:54.400 of slavery into the hope of living in freedom in the land of their own. 00:15:56.420 --> 00:16:04.340 When Moses receives the law, he gets in on Mount Sinai, and we kind 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:11.580 of have this idea of the law, which it's restrictive and not what we want for our lives, or that's 00:16:11.580 --> 00:16:13.080 the Old Testament stuff. 00:16:13.660 --> 00:16:19.860 Jesus fulfilled the law, but he even says that he doesn't come to abolish the law. 00:16:19.880 --> 00:16:21.200 He comes to fulfill the law. 00:16:21.860 --> 00:16:28.900 Law was something which was so important to the Jewish people because before then all they 00:16:28.900 --> 00:16:32.280 were was they lived in slavery. 00:16:32.360 --> 00:16:34.080 They had no idea how to govern a nation. 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:35.880 They had no idea how to live in freedom. 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:38.880 They had no idea how to interact with one another. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:47.080 God gives them this law in which it's given to direct them to 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:55.020 live in a just way with one another, to save one another from killing 00:16:55.020 --> 00:16:57.940 other people or taking other people's stuff. 00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:05.680 It's this idea of directing their lives so that justice would prevail in their midst and that they would be a 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:12.740 light to the nations around them, that other nations would see how the Israelites, 00:17:12.760 --> 00:17:14.780 these people of God would live. 00:17:16.800 --> 00:17:23.859 The psalmist writes in 119:97 through 105, and he describes what the law of God was 00:17:24.020 --> 00:17:28.520 meant to be to the people of Israel and what it meant for him. 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:31.540 It says, "O how I love Your law! 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:34.220 It is my meditation all the day. 00:17:35.260 --> 00:17:39.460 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:44.790 I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:48.900 I understand more than the aged because I have observed Your precepts. 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:53.890 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. 00:17:54.080 --> 00:17:58.340 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. 00:17:59.120 --> 00:18:02.060 How sweet are Your words to my taste! 00:18:02.120 --> 00:18:04.420 Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 00:18:05.300 --> 00:18:10.760 From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. 00:18:11.820 --> 00:18:19.460 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." After 00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:26.460 God gives them the law, Deuteronomy chapter 7:12 through 15 reveals what will come if 00:18:26.540 --> 00:18:30.080 they choose to follow this light, this direction. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:37.600 It says, "Then it shall come about because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you His 00:18:37.600 --> 00:18:41.020 covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers. 00:18:42.330 --> 00:18:49.510 He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:57.140 your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers 00:18:57.140 --> 00:18:58.090 to give you. 00:18:58.600 --> 00:19:05.960 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:07.180 among your cattle. 00:19:07.860 --> 00:19:15.300 The Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which 00:19:15.340 --> 00:19:22.480 you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you." What is 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:25.200 promised is life abundant. 00:19:26.860 --> 00:19:34.120 Now, we lack the time to cover Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Gideon, and all the rest 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:38.940 of the heroes, the prophets of the Bible. 00:19:39.580 --> 00:19:46.620 Maybe you guys are going, "Thank goodness, that was a weird history lesson of the Old Testament," but we lack the time so you guys are good. 00:19:47.260 --> 00:19:54.460 They highlight the centrality of this idea of the importance and power of the word of God 00:19:54.460 --> 00:20:01.570 to bring forth light of which there was darkness, and to bring forth life of which there was death. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:11.920 It's important that we understand the centrality 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:16.600 of the word of God when we read the Bible. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.810 That sounds a little oxymoronic, does it not? 00:20:20.440 --> 00:20:23.580 We're reading the word of God, of course, it's important. 00:20:24.500 --> 00:20:30.860 It's important, and it's not just the language that we use when we're talking about it. 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:34.940 It's something very significant about saying the word of God. 00:20:35.580 --> 00:20:42.760 I think that's because someone's word is something personal, and it's 00:20:42.760 --> 00:20:44.020 something important. 00:20:44.820 --> 00:20:50.340 If you can trust someone's word, or you can't trust someone's word, that means a lot. 00:20:50.660 --> 00:20:56.340 The reason why is because your word isn't just something you say. 00:20:56.340 --> 00:20:58.620 It's a revelation of your heart. 00:21:00.360 --> 00:21:07.680 It is a revealing of who 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:10.320 you are when you speak. 00:21:10.740 --> 00:21:15.610 Jesus says that out of the heart, the mouth speaks. 00:21:17.760 --> 00:21:20.850 That's what the word of God is. 00:21:22.840 --> 00:21:28.780 It is the revealing of who God is. 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:35.380 That God is the one Who brings life, Who brings light. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:37.440 We see that in Genesis 1. 00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:39.750 We see that throughout the Old Testament. 00:21:41.810 --> 00:21:48.460 Just another way, I think how words are so important and they reveal who you are. 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:51.120 Say, you're sitting at a wedding. 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:56.940 Maybe you're going, and you're just going by yourself, and you sit with a bunch of strangers at a table. 00:21:57.780 --> 00:21:58.020 Okay? 00:21:59.690 --> 00:22:06.960 You don't speak to any of the strangers because maybe you're shy, and maybe they all know each other and you're like, "I don't know if I want to 00:22:07.080 --> 00:22:14.120 talk to them or anything." Maybe you hear their names being told across the table, or maybe you even pick up on some of 00:22:14.120 --> 00:22:17.740 their mannerisms, maybe you even see who they are. 00:22:19.360 --> 00:22:26.520 You can tell who they are, but if someone asked you, "Do you 00:22:26.520 --> 00:22:30.380 know them," you'd go, "No, I don't know them. 00:22:31.020 --> 00:22:32.380 I didn't talk to them. 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:37.110 I didn't get to know them," as opposed to... 00:22:37.540 --> 00:22:43.020 Is pen pal still a thing, or maybe AIM buddies? 00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:44.640 Okay. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:45.820 It's not 2005. 00:22:45.940 --> 00:22:53.240 Maybe I missed it, but when you talk to someone through pen pals or email, 00:22:53.980 --> 00:23:01.220 you can get an understanding of who they are, and you can get a really close relationship with that person without ever even seeing them 00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:08.440 or experiencing anything with them or knowing them as opposed to doing stuff with them, but you 00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:12.980 can know who they are even though you never physically met them. 00:23:18.080 --> 00:23:25.140 It's not necessarily the people that you spend the most time with that you're closest to, in my opinion, 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:32.860 it's the people that you're most comfortable bearing your heart to, the people that you're most willing to 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:35.720 have the deep, honest, meaningful conversation with. 00:23:39.040 --> 00:23:46.090 When God reveals His word, He isn't just giving a lecture. 00:23:46.320 --> 00:23:48.900 He isn't just saying, "Okay, here's how it is. 00:23:50.450 --> 00:23:54.320 You need to do that." No, He's revealing His heart. 00:23:54.440 --> 00:24:01.980 He's revealing who He is, but there's something that can be missed over texting conversation, 00:24:02.340 --> 00:24:08.960 or pen pals or whatever it is, the subtleties of interacting face to face are important. 00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:11.900 There can be confusion if there isn't. 00:24:12.140 --> 00:24:19.640 I think God knows that, and in John 1, we find 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:26.520 this, the foreshadowing of what was going to happen. 00:24:27.580 --> 00:24:33.060 In John 1:1 it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:24:33.380 --> 00:24:35.060 He was in the beginning with God. 00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:40.440 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. 00:24:41.060 --> 00:24:46.160 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:53.360 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it." "And the Word 00:24:53.360 --> 00:25:00.360 became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full 00:25:00.360 --> 00:25:01.520 of grace and truth. 00:25:02.360 --> 00:25:09.440 John testified about Him and cried out, saying that "Was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:16.580 higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" For of His fullness we have all received, 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:19.140 and grace upon grace. 00:25:19.520 --> 00:25:24.720 For the Law was given through Moses; and grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 00:25:25.580 --> 00:25:33.480 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten of God who is in the bosom of the Father, He 00:25:34.280 --> 00:25:41.520 has explained Him." I've come to know through reading 00:25:41.520 --> 00:25:49.760 that the message of the Bible is consistent from front to back, which 00:25:49.760 --> 00:25:56.800 is truly amazing considering that was written over 1,500 years with 40 different authors 00:25:56.800 --> 00:26:00.020 and three different languages on three different continents. 00:26:04.220 --> 00:26:11.560 It's a book about the word of God coming into the status quo and absolutely 00:26:11.560 --> 00:26:19.140 destroying it and shining into darkness, and 00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:22.680 bringing life of which death reigned. 00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:30.440 The ultimate revelation of the word of God is His son. 00:26:32.800 --> 00:26:41.780 He came to give what the word of God can give alone, life and light. 00:26:42.860 --> 00:26:48.140 All right, question, who... 00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:50.740 You guys don't have to raise your hand. 00:26:50.780 --> 00:26:58.180 You guys can just do this mentally, but question, how many of you guys want life and 00:26:58.180 --> 00:26:59.460 light? 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:07.480 I presume that all of you guys would raise your hand if that would be the case, but it also has the idea of something being 00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:14.820 bigger than light and life because, honestly, I could sit on that chair for the rest of my life looking at that light, 00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:16.640 and that's not what you mean. 00:27:17.040 --> 00:27:17.280 Right? 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:18.140 That's not what I mean. 00:27:18.420 --> 00:27:19.720 That's not what God means. 00:27:21.820 --> 00:27:29.020 When you're talking about light and life in the Bible, it's something far greater than just light and light. 00:27:29.260 --> 00:27:30.360 It means more. 00:27:34.140 --> 00:27:39.850 Light has the idea of truth. 00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:44.660 That's not very hard to understand. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:46.840 Light and truth go together. 00:27:47.260 --> 00:27:54.290 If we turned off all the lights and maybe just sat here quietly, and you couldn't see anything. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:02.040 Maybe you hear a growl, and you're like, "Oh, goodness, there's a tiger in this room," and then we turn on the lights. 00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:05.490 No, it wasn't a tiger, it was just my stomach. 00:28:07.040 --> 00:28:10.410 There is a revelation of truth when it comes to light. 00:28:10.560 --> 00:28:12.520 Light guides and directs. 00:28:13.820 --> 00:28:19.180 I don't know about you guys, but I think most people have a desire to know truth. 00:28:22.340 --> 00:28:29.400 I mean, this is one of the reasons why we have schools and why we have colleges and universities, and people spend 00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:36.800 how many years of their life getting PhDs and master degrees and all that, and why I spend 00:28:36.800 --> 00:28:44.520 an insane amount of numbers listening to podcasts and YouTube videos and reading books, the 00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:50.300 number I don't even want to tell you because I have a desire to know what is real and what is not. 00:28:51.100 --> 00:28:52.970 I have a desire to know truth. 00:28:55.180 --> 00:28:58.820 In the same way, we desire a life. 00:28:59.580 --> 00:29:06.680 We desire a life, but not just life as in going every day, but we desire a meaningful life, a 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:08.980 full life, a good life. 00:29:09.740 --> 00:29:17.260 This is why people dedicate their lives to careers or having a family, or 00:29:17.260 --> 00:29:18.460 whatever it is. 00:29:18.980 --> 00:29:28.640 You want a full life, a meaningful life, and we pursue that because 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:35.740 God designs us in such a way in which we truly desire 00:29:35.740 --> 00:29:42.270 to know what is true and to experience the fullness of life. 00:29:43.340 --> 00:29:50.540 When Jesus came to the earth, he said in Genesis 8:12, "I am the light of 00:29:50.580 --> 00:29:51.140 the world. 00:29:51.560 --> 00:29:59.220 He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of 00:29:59.220 --> 00:30:06.300 life." Jesus in John 10 says, "I have come so that they may have life and have 00:30:06.300 --> 00:30:14.260 it abundantly." When talking to the woman at the well who had five 00:30:14.260 --> 00:30:21.840 different marriages and have tried to find her life in these marriages, Jesus tells 00:30:21.840 --> 00:30:29.380 her, "Whoever drinks of this water," the water at the well, "will thirst again, but 00:30:29.380 --> 00:30:36.580 whoever drinks of the water which I will give shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him 00:30:37.120 --> 00:30:45.680 will become in him a well of water, springing up to eternal life." John 00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:53.520 6, when Jesus is talking to the crowd after he feeds the 5,000 says, "I am the bread of life." Not 00:30:53.720 --> 00:30:54.380 that bread. 00:30:54.840 --> 00:30:56.020 That's my quotations. 00:30:58.040 --> 00:31:05.580 "He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst." What is 00:31:05.580 --> 00:31:06.920 the life that Jesus offers? 00:31:08.900 --> 00:31:10.260 It's a life of meaning. 00:31:12.060 --> 00:31:13.330 It's a life of satisfaction. 00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:18.020 It's a life of fullness, not of want. 00:31:20.200 --> 00:31:24.320 How can Jesus say that he can give this to us? 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:33.360 It's because he is the word of God made flesh, the very word of God that created everything, who 00:31:33.660 --> 00:31:40.080 created light and life, and created you and I and everything that we know and see. 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:45.100 He desires to bring it into our lives to transform it. 00:31:47.640 --> 00:31:54.740 Question, where are we looking for 00:31:54.740 --> 00:31:55.440 truth? 00:31:57.100 --> 00:31:59.380 Where are we looking for light? 00:32:03.380 --> 00:32:05.040 Where are you... 00:32:05.040 --> 00:32:07.800 Where am I looking for life? 00:32:10.140 --> 00:32:12.200 Where are we looking for fullness of life? 00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:16.800 Where is that getting you? 00:32:20.860 --> 00:32:22.940 I don't know how you answer that. 00:32:24.060 --> 00:32:28.940 It takes some self-reflection to think and time to think about that. 00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:34.840 When I think about that, it's super convicting to me. 00:32:34.860 --> 00:32:42.680 I know that, but the Bible is quite clear, and I know from experience that the 00:32:42.680 --> 00:32:49.880 only source of light and life, of fullness and of truth is the word 00:32:49.880 --> 00:32:52.080 of God, who is Jesus Christ. 00:32:53.800 --> 00:33:00.880 The amazing thing is that he has invited you and I to experience that light and that 00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:01.680 life. 00:33:03.600 --> 00:33:10.880 When Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4 and possibly one 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:13.900 of my favorite chapters, maybe my favorite chapter of the Bible. 00:33:15.540 --> 00:33:22.760 In verse 6, he says, "For God, who said, "Light shall shine 00:33:22.760 --> 00:33:29.900 out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory 00:33:29.900 --> 00:33:33.480 of God in the face of Christ."