Speed of Light – Week 1

SPEED OF LIGHT 1 – Light Overcomes Darkness

Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019

Pastor Troy Brewer, OpenDoor Church, Burleson, Texas

IF YOU ARE GOING TO FOLLOW JESUS, HE IS GOING TO TAKE YOU TO SCHOOL. 

• If you are a disciple of Jesus, that means that you are a pupil in His school and you are going to remain teachable for the rest of your life because you are going to follow Jesus for the rest of your life.
• Be teachable. Successful people are teachable. 
• Don’t be hard-headed. Don’t be hard-hearted.
• Judge yourself and if you are not teachable, become teachable.
• 1 Corinthians 11:31 – For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged…

A HEART DEDICATED TO JESUS IS THE KEY TO KNOWING THIS BOOK.

A huge part of having a heart committed to learning Christ is a heart committed to the book written by Him which testifies of Him.  (John 5:38 says that)

• John 5:45 – Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures…
• The study of scripture is to connect our hearts to the One who works wonders.
• The reason it’s called a Bible is because the word Bible comes from the Greek word “biblios” which means  “the book.” So, what is the book?

Bible Statistics:

The  Old Testament contains 39 books

The  Old Testament contains 929 chapters

The  Old Testament contains 23,214 verses

The  New Testament contains 27 books

The  New Testament contains 260 chapters

The  New Testament contains 7,956 verses

For a total in the Bible of: 66 books

1,189 chapters 

31,170 verses

810,677 words

3,566,480 letters

66 books by 40 authors across 16 centuries

BIBLE: BASIC INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE LEAVING EARTH

• The Bible contains knowledge, wisdom, the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of the sinner and the happiness of the believer.
• It’s packed full of blessings and curses, suggestions and commandments. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. It contains food to support you and comfort to cheer you.
• It is also a light to guide you.
• God was 2,300 years getting ready to write it – 1,600 years in the making and has spent 1,900+ years fulfilling it.
• This book, combined with the power of the Holy Spirit, changes lives, changes families, changes lifestyles, changes society, nations and entire generations.

When people get dedicated to finding the heart of the author of this book, things change.

• Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day
• Not the beginning of God, but the beginning of the universe where you and I live.
• GOD IS OVER ALL THINGS BUT HE IS NOT MANIFEST AND PERSONALLY INVOLVED IN ALL THINGS.
  • THIS IS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE KINGDOM
• There are many things God is patiently waiting to be personally involved in.
• Luke 6:20 – “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
• Revelation 11:15  – The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
• Colossians 1:12-13 …giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…

GENESIS 1

• “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep” – three conditions of any world where Jesus Christ is not involved in: WITHOUT FORM, VOID, DARKNESS
  • “WITHOUT FORM” – LIGHT SHOWS UP AS ORDER
    • Definition of “without form” –  an authoritative direction a condition in which each thing is properly disposed with  harmonious arrangement:
  • “VOID”  – LIGHT SHOWS UP AS LIFE
    • Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity in man’s heart.
    • Psalms 63:1 – God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
  • “DARKNESS” – DARKNESS IS NO MATCH FOR LIGHT
    • Darkness can never master light.
    • Joshua 8:14 – Now it happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before the plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.