WEBVTT 00:00:01.880 --> 00:00:09.080 If you are starting a relationship with God want to know him and grow in him more and experience him in life and you're asking the question, "How can 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:15.380 I find know him?" The answer is pretty easy for us and taking those initial steps as human beings. 00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:16.320 God made it clear. 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:18.440 God has revealed himself in two ways. 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:20.230 We call it both general and special revelation. 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:22.630 General revelation, we look at things like creation. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:25.220 God made creation and it's his handiwork. 00:00:25.860 --> 00:00:30.200 The Bible tells us some Romans 1, the evidence of who he is as seen in his creation. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:32.540 But God is also given a special revelation. 00:00:33.740 --> 00:00:36.030 The word revelation means unveiling. 00:00:36.460 --> 00:00:37.660 It's a Latin word. 00:00:37.660 --> 00:00:40.240 God has revealed Himself to us. 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:43.900 Special revelation for a Christian comes in two ways. 00:00:43.900 --> 00:00:47.220 One is in Jesus and the other is through God's Word. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.060 Picking up God's Word is especially important. 00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:56.140 God has written his word down so that we don't mistaken his identity but we can come to understand him. 00:00:56.700 --> 00:00:59.210 It's in written form because truth does not change. 00:00:59.660 --> 00:01:03.420 From generation to generation we can all come to know the same God. 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:07.220 So maybe you're looking at the Bible for the first time and you wondering where should you start? 00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:11.330 It is important for you to know that the Bible is not put together chronologically. 00:01:12.160 --> 00:01:13.440 It's broken out categorically. 00:01:15.100 --> 00:01:18.000 The Old Testament is made up of 39 books. 00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:20.380 The New Testament is made up of 27 books. 00:01:21.380 --> 00:01:28.860 In the Old Testament the first five books were written by Moses, followed by 12 historical books, followed by 5 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:32.660 poetry books and then it ends in the prosthetic books. 00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:37.040 In the New Testament, you have the four Gospels. 00:01:37.940 --> 00:01:42.600 Then you have the book of Acts, which records the history of the church and the way the Holy Spirit empowers then. 00:01:43.220 --> 00:01:45.860 Then you have the Epistles, which are letters. 00:01:46.080 --> 00:01:48.450 The first ones you encounter are by the Apostle Paul. 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:51.550 Those aren't even ranked for us according to chronology. 00:01:51.960 --> 00:01:54.560 They're actually ranked according to the length of the letter. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:57.420 The longer the letter Paul wrote, the closer it is to the book of Acts. 00:01:57.940 --> 00:02:00.380 The short the letter, the farther it is from the book of Acts. 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:06.500 Then you have the general epistles after that, written by Peter and Jude and James and John. 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:08.150 Then finally the Book of Revelation. 00:02:09.320 --> 00:02:13.580 When it comes to starting God's word, I can say the Bible is all about Jesus. 00:02:14.420 --> 00:02:16.800 The Old Testament is the revealing of Christ. 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:20.620 God has been pursuing you from beginning to end in a relationship with him. 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:23.060 The Old Testament of foreshadowing of Jesus. 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.040 The New Testament points back to Jesus and the Gospels reveal Jesus. 00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:32.930 I would encourage you, if you want to know this Jesus, to start in the book of John. 00:02:33.140 --> 00:02:34.800 Johns book was written to the world. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:36.400 It's the gospel account of Christ. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:44.760 You can take a chapter a day for three weeks and just go through that and get to know Jesus as Jesus has revealed himself for you that you may enjoy 00:02:44.760 --> 00:02:46.040 him for eternity. 00:02:46.940 --> 00:02:54.220 After that I would jump around to some other important books of the New Testament, because the New Testament paints the fuller picture of God's revelation to 00:02:54.220 --> 00:02:54.440 us. 00:02:54.940 --> 00:02:59.880 I would start with the book of Ephesians, or Galatians, or Philippians, or Colossians. 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:02.340 Those are all great books. 00:03:02.980 --> 00:03:09.980 If you come out of a religious background and you want to see the significance of Jesus over religion, maybe even the book of Hebrews would be a great 00:03:09.980 --> 00:03:11.080 place for you to start. 00:03:11.540 --> 00:03:13.880 But here's what is important: is that you start. 00:03:14.880 --> 00:03:15.840 Open up God's Word. 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:23.700 If you're not plugged into a good biblically based church, that's going to encourage you in God's Word and give you a great family to encourage your relationship with God, 00:03:24.060 --> 00:03:25.540 I would invite you to join one. 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:30.380 As you open up God's Word, come and ask questions among the body of Christ. 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:34.060 If there's a hard part of you don't understand, ask them about it. 00:03:34.720 --> 00:03:41.740 If you want, I would even check out a Bible that contains commentary that explains passages, so that you can better 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:42.420 understand it. 00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:46.000 At the very least, start reading it. 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:51.880 God gave you his word that you may know him and enjoy him all the days of your life.