Sermon

Is There a God?

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  1. We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church.

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  5. Today's scripture reading is taken from the book of Genesis, chapter 1, the Gospel of John, chapter 1,

    Genesis 1 chapter mention John 1 chapter mention

  6. and the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 1, all as printed in the liturgy.

    Romans 1 chapter mention

  7. A reading from the book of Genesis.

  8. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

  9. Now the earth was formless and empty.

  10. Today, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

  11. And God said, Let there be light.

  12. And there was light.

  13. Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,

  14. so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky,

  15. over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

  16. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them,

  17. male and female he created them.

  18. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number,

  19. fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky,

  20. and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

  21. A reading from the Gospel according to John.

  22. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

  23. He was with God in the beginning.

  24. Through him all things were made.

  25. Without him nothing was made that has been made.

  26. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

  27. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

  28. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

  29. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him,

  30. the world did not recognize him.

  31. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

  32. Yet to all who did receive him,

  33. To those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

  34. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will,

  35. but born of God.

  36. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

  37. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son,

  38. who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

  39. A reading from the Epistle to the Romans.

  40. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people

  41. who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

  42. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

  43. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities,

  44. his eternal power and divine nature,

  45. have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,

  46. so that people are without excuse.

  47. For although they knew God,

  48. they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him,

  49. but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

  50. Although they claimed to be wise,

  51. they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God

  52. for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

  53. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts

  54. to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

  55. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie

  56. and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator,

  57. who is forever praised.

  58. Amen.

  59. This is the word of the Lord.

  60. Thanks be to God.

  61. Well, thank you, Michael, for that scripture reading.

  62. And good morning, everyone.

  63. My name is Andrew.

  64. I'm one of the pastors here.

  65. And will you join me in prayer as we open up God's word together?

  66. Father, I just ask that you would reveal yourself to us,

  67. open our eyes to see your truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

  68. And would we find that your truth is not only true,

  69. but that it is beautiful as revealed in Jesus Christ.

  70. We pray this in his name.

  71. Amen.

  72. All right, so let's do this.

  73. Is there a God?

  74. Right?

  75. Yes.

  76. We're done.

  77. Now, you probably don't need to guess my answer to this question.

  78. Look at my outfit, right?

  79. But the first thing that I want to say is that if you're here,

  80. and your answer to this question, is there a God, is no, or maybe, or I'm not sure,

  81. we want to especially thank you for being here.

  82. And we want to acknowledge that just by stepping into this church,

  83. you've already taken a huge step of faith.

  84. You've taken a step into this church in faith that this is not going to be a complete waste of your time.

  85. So we're super honored that you're here,

  86. and we want you to know that Christ's church exists not just for Christians,

  87. but for people just like you.

  88. The second thing I want to say is that if you consider yourself as someone who doesn't believe in God,

  89. or if you struggle to believe in God,

  90. I want to say to you that, you know,

  91. we Christians actually might agree with you more than you think.

  92. Because, you know, it's actually quite possible that the God you don't believe in

  93. truly doesn't exist, and isn't worthy of your faith and trust.

  94. And it might be that that's also not the God that we believe in either.

  95. Here at Christ's church, we recognize that a big reason people don't believe in God

  96. is because they haven't beheld Him for who He really is.

  97. So we welcome your skepticism, we welcome your questions,

  98. we hope that you'll join us in our Q&A after this.

  99. And really, our only hope for you is that you'd be introduced to the God

  100. that we believe truly is worthy of believing in.

  101. And we believe that that God is revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

  102. So that's what we're going to be talking about today as we approach this question,

  103. is there a God?

  104. We're specifically asking, does the Christian God exist?

  105. Now, maybe you're expecting the sermon to go something like this.

  106. Yes, there is a God because, argument one, two, three, and four,

  107. or however many I can throw at you in the next 30 minutes, right?

  108. And honestly, I could preach that sermon in probably less than two minutes, right?

  109. Like, check this out.

  110. Yes, there is a God because, point one, where did all this come from,

  111. if not from a divine first cause?

  112. Point two, how else could we account for the fine-tuning of this universe

  113. and how intricately this world is sustained and held together?

  114. And what is the probability that this world is ordered this way just by chance?

  115. Point three, how else could we ground the transcendent and universal nature

  116. of morality and justice apart from a transcendent God?

  117. And then point four, if there is no God, and if this is all there is,

  118. and the universe is just an impersonal chunk of matter,

  119. why do our lives feel like they're stories full of meaning?

  120. Why do our interactions feel so personal rather than mechanical or robotic?

  121. And what is beauty?

  122. And why does human love and consciousness seem like something more than just a biochemical reaction?

  123. And there we go, my four-point sermon.

  124. We can go home.

  125. But, you know, while I do personally find these arguments compelling,

  126. compelling signals indicating God's existence,

  127. I know that they don't definitively prove God, like, beyond all doubt.

  128. In fact, if we're talking about the Christian God,

  129. I'll be the first to admit that we can't prove this God

  130. because He is not a God that we can prove or disprove.

  131. If you tried to prove God at the very start,

  132. appealing to some more certain, more authoritative, more trustworthy,

  133. more reliable proof of God,

  134. you've already begun looking for something greater than God.

  135. And so from the start, you'd be trying to prove an inherently inferior being

  136. whose own word and revelation were not authoritative enough to verify His own existence.

  137. And again, this would not be the Christian God.

  138. So as circular as this may be, at the end of the day,

  139. I believe that there is a God because God has revealed Himself to us as self-evident.

  140. And there is no higher or more reliable authority

  141. than God's own testimony and communication concerning Himself.

  142. But now if you're here, I'm sure you don't buy that, right?

  143. Maybe you think I'm crazy.

  144. Maybe you think I'm deluded or just incredibly narrow-minded, right?

  145. And unable to see from any other perspective than my own Christian one

  146. to say something like this.

  147. And maybe your fair and logical question to me is,

  148. well, if God is self-evident, then why do so many people not believe in God?

  149. And why are we asking this question, is there a God?

  150. Well, that's the question that I really want to consider this morning.

  151. Why do we ask this question, is there a God?

  152. Have you ever given any thought to that?

  153. Like, why do we ask, is there a God?

  154. Now, the modern secular person might say it's because God is not self-evident, right?

  155. Because if He was, then everyone, right, everyone would believe in Him.

  156. But they don't, so He must not be self-evident.

  157. And that seems like pretty sound reasoning, right?

  158. But isn't it possible that something self-evident might still be denied and rejected as false,

  159. even if it was true?

  160. Like, is it truly self-evident that all people are created equal?

  161. Yes?

  162. Well, if so, then why weren't people treated equal on the southern plantations

  163. or in the Nazi internment camps?

  164. It is very possible.

  165. It is very possible for something to be self-evident and yet not believed.

  166. Whether people are blinded from seeing the truth as victims of some kind of evil Nazi propaganda

  167. or people can just deny self-evident truths out of their own wicked and deceitful motivations,

  168. right?

  169. Like so many of our early founding fathers who did believe that all people were created equal

  170. and yet they found ways to justify slavery because they loved money and power and comfort

  171. more than truth.

  172. So I want to question and I want to problematize this assumption that God's existence must not

  173. be self-evident.

  174. And I want to suggest that there are other explanations for why we ask this question,

  175. is there a God?

  176. Because, you know, for the majority of humanity throughout history, divine existence has been

  177. considered as self-evident.

  178. And the Christian scriptures would agree.

  179. Look at verses 19 and 20 of our Romans passage.

  180. Apostle Paul says what can be known about God is plain, like it's self-evident because God

  181. has made it plain to us and his divine qualities have been clearly seen and therefore we are

  182. without excuse.

  183. So Christians, along with a sizable majority of people throughout history, have considered

  184. God's existence to be self-evident.

  185. And of course, this doesn't make us right about the matter, but I do wonder if this should

  186. factor into how we talk about who should bear the burden of proof in this matter.

  187. You know, there's this one time, a long time ago, I'm not even sure if I was married yet,

  188. but I was interacting with my wife, Chelsea, and I wanted to test her.

  189. And I said, hey Chelsea, why do you believe in God?

  190. And I expected that she was going to give me a bunch of different reasons, and I planned

  191. to play devil's advocate, right?

  192. And to critique her and to use that moment to teach her all the stuff I learned in seminary.

  193. But to my surprise, she hit me with something that I didn't at all expect.

  194. And she totally stopped me in my tracks.

  195. So I'm like, hey Chelsea, why do you believe in God?

  196. And then she looked at me, annoyed, as you've often seen her look at me.

  197. She rolled her eyes, and she said, why not?

  198. And then she just went on carrying on with her own business, leaving me dazed and hemming

  199. and hawing all to myself.

  200. Now I share this story not just to give you a pretty representative window into my marriage,

  201. but to help us see that a big part of how we come at this question, is there a God,

  202. has to do with where we think the burden of proof lies.

  203. Like I tried to place the burden of proof on Chelsea to support why she believed in God,

  204. but then she flipped it back on me to make a case for why she shouldn't.

  205. And in the same way, I want us to consider, why are we even asking the question, is there

  206. a God?

  207. Why aren't we asking instead, is there not a God?

  208. Now this is not to say that is there a God is a bad question or a wrong question, but it

  209. is to note that it's a question that comes from a particular historical context and background.

  210. Right?

  211. Like did you know that in the Western world, atheism didn't really come onto the scene as a compelling

  212. like option until the late 1800s.

  213. So it's worth asking, as the philosopher Charles Taylor does in his massive book, A Secular

  214. Age, why was it virtually impossible not to believe in God and say 1500 in our Western

  215. society?

  216. Why?

  217. While in 2000, many of us find this not only easy, but even inescapable.

  218. Now that question is way above my pay grade.

  219. And even if I could answer it, we don't have time.

  220. But my point is, when we ask, is there a God rather than, is there not a God?

  221. It might actually reveal far more about us than it does about whether or not God exists.

  222. When we ask, is there a God, we display our own cultural and historical conditioning and

  223. situatedness and the background beliefs that come with being modern, secular people.

  224. Because see, according to the Christian account of world history, the first humans, Adam and

  225. Eve, especially before they began to doubt God's word, they would never have even thought

  226. to ask such a question as, is there a God?

  227. Even when Adam and Eve experienced God's divine absence, right?

  228. God came into the garden, then he went out of the garden.

  229. They experienced his divine absence, but they never doubted his existence.

  230. And then even after the fall of humanity, when we began to doubt God and his words,

  231. no one, no one doubted his existence.

  232. Even when they stopped going for walks with God in the garden, virtually all of the ancient

  233. world, even those who didn't worship the same God as Abraham.

  234. Moses and Adam.

  235. For them, doubting the divine just wasn't plausible in the ancient world.

  236. And even when they experienced long bouts of divine absence, right?

  237. They didn't doubt the divine, but they actually pined for the divine presence all the more.

  238. All the more, right?

  239. But here we are as modern Western people, and we hold the background belief that God isn't

  240. self-evident.

  241. That God's existence is up for debate, and that it's acceptable to doubt him.

  242. And probably our biggest obstacle to belief in God is the problem of evil and suffering, right?

  243. Like, how could God allow it?

  244. And why hasn't he given us an explanation for evil and suffering?

  245. Because we moderns, right?

  246. Because we moderns are so confident that we can understand so much of the universe and how it works,

  247. it's hard for us to believe in a God that we can't fully grasp and explain.

  248. And so, like, if I can't think of a reason why God would allow pain and suffering, then

  249. there must not be a reason, and God must not exist.

  250. But for pre-modern people, who probably suffered, like, far worse than any of us, it was like,

  251. of course we can't understand everything that God allows to happen.

  252. And suffering actually drew them nearer to God than further.

  253. Because after all, if we have a God big enough to be mad at, because he's all, you know, he's all

  254. powerful and he's all wise, if we have a God that's big enough to be mad at, that he doesn't fix things,

  255. then we probably also have a God big enough to have some reasons why he doesn't fix things,

  256. reasons that we just might not yet know as finite creatures.

  257. So what I'm saying is, sure, we can ask, is there a God, but why do we ask?

  258. And might it be that we ask not so much because God's existence is clearly implausible,

  259. but because we live in an age that has suppressed the truth and made God's existence implausible?

  260. Now, I'm not saying that modern Western people are any worse than the people of any other time.

  261. But I do want to point out that we aren't as neutral as we like to think we are.

  262. And we do have blind spots.

  263. And our particular blind spot is that since Descartes, right, since the Enlightenment,

  264. we've been conditioned to pursue truth and certainty, not by faith in God who reveals things to us,

  265. but by doubt.

  266. Think about that.

  267. We've been conditioned to pursue certainty through the method of skepticism.

  268. We've been taught to doubt everything and doubt as much as you can.

  269. And at the point in which you cannot doubt anymore, then you finally arrived at certainty and truth.

  270. And that's what Descartes did, right?

  271. He doubted and doubted and doubted until he realized,

  272. I think, therefore, I am.

  273. Or in other words, I can know that I exist because I'm thinking.

  274. And I could not think unless I existed.

  275. So I am certain that I exist because I am thinking.

  276. Descartes believed his doubting led to certain knowledge.

  277. And we've been influenced by this method ever since, using skepticism and doubt to discern

  278. and discover the truth.

  279. But the thing is, you know, Descartes, honestly, he could have doubted some more.

  280. He could have.

  281. We can always keep doubting if we want to.

  282. There are no limits to skepticism.

  283. Sure, I believe my wife loves me.

  284. I believe she's a mortgage loan processor and a real estate agent.

  285. But how do I really know that she's not a Chinese spy?

  286. Plotting my demise.

  287. I could always doubt if I wanted to.

  288. But none of us lives that way, right?

  289. None of us lives that way as absolute skeptics because it's impossible to live that way.

  290. When you sat down in these pews today, you didn't research the tree that this wood came from.

  291. You didn't try to discern how old the wood was.

  292. Or you didn't measure the thickness of the pew and calculate the physics relative to your body weight.

  293. No, you just sat in it, all right?

  294. You trusted the pew would support you.

  295. None of us can live a life of radical doubt and skepticism.

  296. For as C.S. Lewis would caution us, the one who sees through everything sees nothing.

  297. We all live with implicit faith.

  298. And even when we doubt, it takes faith to doubt.

  299. You know, we tend to often think of faith as a blind leap and of doubt as honest.

  300. But there is such a thing as a reasonable faith.

  301. And there is also such a thing as blind, irrational, and dishonest doubt.

  302. Whatever we believe to be true or whoever we believe to be telling the truth,

  303. we always believe with a measure of faith.

  304. Or to put it differently, we believe things to be true by some measure of trust.

  305. Trust.

  306. All knowledge of anything requires trust.

  307. Every time we push on the brakes in our cars, right?

  308. We don't just know that the car is going to stop.

  309. We trust that the car is going to stop.

  310. Or as the Scottish philosopher David Hume would famously remind us,

  311. when we anticipate the sun rising once again tomorrow,

  312. as it has ever since we've ever known a bazillion times,

  313. because we still can only trust and believe by faith that it's going to rise again tomorrow.

  314. Everything we say we know, we actually trust that we know it.

  315. We know by at least a small measure of faith.

  316. So when it comes to the question of is there a God,

  317. whether we answer yes or no or maybe,

  318. every answer, every answer requires faith.

  319. Prior assumptions and commitments that we do not doubt but also cannot prove.

  320. Now you may be wondering, if all knowledge then requires a measure of faith,

  321. and if none of us are as neutral or unbiased as we like to think,

  322. am I saying that we're all just stuck in this chaotic and subjective world of competing,

  323. he said, she said, they said, we said?

  324. Well, no, let me be very clear.

  325. It is because I believe, our text this morning, Genesis chapter 1,

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  326. that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

  327. It is because of my faith in this God that I also believe in objective and absolute truth,

  328. that all truth is God's truth,

  329. and that therefore all truth is also public truth, universal truth,

  330. because this world belongs to a God who's holding it all together.

  331. And even though we are fallible and finite,

  332. I also believe we can know objective, public, and universal truths

  333. because God made us in His image and in His likeness.

  334. And He wants us to know Him, and He wants us to know ourselves,

  335. and He wants us to know the rest of His creation.

  336. But you see, it is precisely because of my faith

  337. that I can account for an objective world.

  338. In fact, you know, even when Francis Bacon was articulating the scientific method,

  339. he wasn't doing that in a vacuum.

  340. He was a committed Christian.

  341. He developed a scientific method based on his faith in a God

  342. who ordered and sustains the universe.

  343. So you see, Christians, we very much affirm truth as objective,

  344. even as we also recognize that there's always a subjective measure of faith and trust involved,

  345. as with everything we claim to know and live by.

  346. When God spoke to Adam and Eve in person,

  347. telling them how to live and what to do and what not to do,

  348. they were to live and they were to obey by faith and trust in God's Word to them.

  349. Just because they saw God face to face didn't mean that they didn't have to have faith in Him.

  350. But see, their faith, it wasn't a huge blind leap of faith.

  351. It was simply the natural way of relating to their Maker.

  352. Just like a newborn implicitly trusts and has faith in her mother

  353. and trusts her mother with her whole life.

  354. We were always meant to have faith,

  355. even from the beginning when we walked with God.

  356. A reasonable faith.

  357. A faith that comports with logic and our sensory experiences

  358. and our most basic intuitions about God and ourselves and this world.

  359. And not just a faith, but a hope and a love and an affection too.

  360. See, contrary to the theory that modern secular people

  361. can just subtract faith and religion and emotion and dogma

  362. in order to finally see the world clearly and rationally and truly as it really is,

  363. again, Charles Taylor, he's formerly a philosopher at Oxford,

  364. now he's at Northwestern.

  365. He points out that secularism is not the absence of belief,

  366. but just another set of beliefs with motives of its own.

  367. Oftentimes that are unexamined and at the end of the day,

  368. just as unprovable as the beliefs and motives of religious people.

  369. So you see, a big reason why we are asking,

  370. is there a God today,

  371. is because we are modern people who've been conditioned to pursue truth

  372. through doubt and skepticism.

  373. But if we're honest with ourselves,

  374. even when we doubt, it takes faith to do so.

  375. We only doubt because of something else that we do believe by faith.

  376. So I'm not saying that doubt is necessarily wrong.

  377. Doubt is even warranted by the Christian scriptures.

  378. Adam and Eve should have doubted the serpent

  379. instead of doubting God in the garden.

  380. And as finite and fallible human beings

  381. living in a broken world amongst broken people,

  382. we have great reason to doubt a whole lot of stuff in this world.

  383. And maybe that's why you doubt God's existence as well.

  384. Because you rightfully doubt religious people

  385. and religious institutions who have hurt you or others

  386. or who've manipulated you or others

  387. or who've taken advantage of your trust.

  388. Your doubt, I want you to hear from me, is warranted.

  389. But as important as your doubt is,

  390. we also need to consider where our faith lies as well.

  391. Because we were always meant to doubt out of and by faith.

  392. Like contrary to Descartes who said,

  393. we must doubt in order to know truly,

  394. Augustine said, we need to believe in order to know truly.

  395. See, Adam and Eve should have doubted the serpent

  396. because of their faith in God's word to them.

  397. God's word that spoke creation into being

  398. and brought order into chaos and light into darkness.

  399. Look at Genesis chapter 1 verse 3.

    Genesis 1:3

  400. God's word here is constituting reality.

  401. And God said, let there be light and there was light.

  402. So you see, it was by faith.

  403. It was by faith in that powerful, authoritative word of God

  404. speaking into creation that we were always meant to live.

  405. It was by that light that God spoke into the world

  406. that we were meant to see and behold all of reality as it truly is.

  407. Again, as C.S. Lewis would put it,

  408. I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen.

  409. Not only because I see it,

  410. but because by it, I see everything else.

  411. And therefore, the reason we ask questions like,

  412. is there a God,

  413. is because we stop seeing by God's light.

  414. We stop trusting in God's reality constituting word

  415. and we've chosen darkness instead.

  416. To use Paul's language here in Romans chapter 1 verse 19,

    Romans 1:19

  417. even though God made himself known to us plainly,

  418. we wickedly suppress the truth in our unrighteousness.

  419. Verse 21,

  420. And although we knew God,

  421. we refused to give him glory and thanks.

  422. And thus our very thinking and reasoning

  423. and understanding of the world became futile.

  424. And our hearts were darkened to the point

  425. of adoring things other than God,

  426. things less than God,

  427. less glorious,

  428. less wonderful,

  429. less good.

  430. Verse 22,

  431. Although we claim to be wise,

  432. we became fools

  433. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God

  434. for images of created things.

  435. In verse 25,

  436. we exchanged the truth about God for a lie

  437. and worshiped and served created things

  438. rather than through creator.

  439. We totally got it backwards.

  440. We totally mixed it up.

  441. And you see,

  442. this is the Christian account

  443. for why we ask the question,

  444. is there a God?

  445. It's because of this thing called sin.

  446. It's not just a problem of the head,

  447. but of the heart

  448. and of the hands as well.

  449. And I'm not condemning you as a sinner

  450. for being genuinely curious

  451. and asking the question,

  452. is there a God?

  453. I'm quite glad that people

  454. are asking this question,

  455. but what I do want to make clear

  456. is that sin is the reason

  457. why this question has come about

  458. as plausible in the first place.

  459. A sinful suppression of the truth

  460. and an exchanging of the truth

  461. about God for a lie,

  462. elevating the creature

  463. above the creator.

  464. And while it is possible

  465. to ask this question

  466. with an honest heart,

  467. and with a true desire

  468. to seek God,

  469. it's also possible

  470. to ask this question,

  471. is there a God

  472. with a darkened heart?

  473. A darkened heart

  474. that's already determined

  475. what it is willing to believe

  476. apart from God.

  477. A darkened heart

  478. that's faithfully committed

  479. to a radical skepticism

  480. and doubt

  481. that excludes

  482. and suppresses

  483. the truth about God

  484. from the very start.

  485. And if that's you this morning,

  486. I don't have words

  487. of condemnation for you,

  488. but I do have words

  489. of warning and invitation.

  490. Like, might it be

  491. that it's not for intellectual

  492. and rational reasons

  493. that you struggle

  494. to believe in God?

  495. Might it be

  496. that you are bound

  497. to desires

  498. that you already know

  499. are not of God?

  500. And it's interesting to me

  501. how Paul mentions

  502. one kind of powerful desire

  503. here in verse 24.

  504. Therefore, God gave them up,

  505. God gave them over

  506. in the sinful desires

  507. of their hearts

  508. to sexual impurity

  509. for the degrading

  510. of their bodies

  511. with one another.

  512. He talks about sex

  513. right in the middle

  514. of all that.

  515. And you know,

  516. the atheist,

  517. the famous atheist

  518. and author

  519. and philosopher

  520. Aldous Huxley,

  521. he was honest enough

  522. to admit

  523. that this was the reason

  524. why he didn't want

  525. to believe in God.

  526. Because it would interfere

  527. with his sexual freedom

  528. and condemn

  529. what he called

  530. his erotic revolt.

  531. You have another

  532. famous atheist,

  533. Thomas Nagel.

  534. He's professor of law

  535. and philosophy at NYU.

  536. And he too is honest

  537. enough to admit

  538. that he doesn't just

  539. not believe in God,

  540. but he doesn't want there

  541. to be a God.

  542. And he describes himself

  543. as having, quote,

  544. a cosmic authority problem.

  545. See, Huxley and Nagel,

  546. they recognize

  547. and they admit

  548. that their hearts

  549. and their hands

  550. are very much at play

  551. along with their heads

  552. in their denial of God.

  553. And this morning,

  554. I just want to ask,

  555. might that describe you

  556. as well?

  557. And this is not just

  558. a question aimed

  559. at the atheists

  560. and the agnostics

  561. in the room,

  562. but even those of us

  563. who identify as Christians,

  564. for all of us

  565. who struggle with unbelief

  566. and a lack of faith

  567. and trust in God

  568. and in his words

  569. and in his ways,

  570. don't we all have

  571. a cosmic authority problem

  572. that's more than just

  573. a matter of our intellect

  574. and what's going on

  575. in our heads?

  576. Like, I know

  577. it's way more comfortable

  578. to argue these points

  579. and just have it all

  580. up here in our minds

  581. in some kind of

  582. abstract way,

  583. like it's just some kind

  584. of intellectual exercise.

  585. But God didn't make us

  586. as brains on sticks.

  587. We are people

  588. made in his image

  589. meant to engage

  590. the world

  591. with our head,

  592. our hearts,

  593. and our hands.

  594. And the implications

  595. of this, I get,

  596. can be terrifying

  597. to reckon with, right?

  598. That this,

  599. is there a God question

  600. is something more

  601. than a philosophical debate

  602. over what our heads

  603. ought to think,

  604. but it has major implications

  605. for what our hearts

  606. are supposed to love,

  607. what our hands

  608. are supposed to do.

  609. Like, this could change

  610. everything for us,

  611. and that's why many of us

  612. don't want to be confronted

  613. with God's truth.

  614. But at the same time,

  615. don't we all want

  616. the kind of rich

  617. and whole

  618. and coherent life

  619. that we might have

  620. if we accept

  621. the truth about the world,

  622. regardless of what it

  623. might cost us.

  624. A head, heart,

  625. and hands life

  626. aligned, right,

  627. with the truest

  628. possible story

  629. of the world.

  630. And not just the truest

  631. story of the world,

  632. but the most beautiful

  633. story of the world

  634. about this loving God

  635. who came

  636. to save the world.

  637. According to our final text

  638. that we haven't yet

  639. touched today

  640. from John's Gospel,

  641. the good news

  642. of Christianity

  643. is that yes,

  644. there is a God

  645. who made us

  646. and who is light.

  647. And even when we chose

  648. darkness again

  649. and again and again

  650. throughout our lives

  651. and throughout human history,

  652. God sent His Word

  653. and light back

  654. into the world

  655. once again,

  656. even knowing

  657. that His light

  658. and His Word

  659. would be rejected again.

  660. But He still sent Him

  661. with the intention

  662. of drawing His wayward children

  663. back into His family.

  664. And this light,

  665. this Word that He sent

  666. was none other

  667. than His Son,

  668. Jesus Christ,

  669. the fullest revelation,

  670. the fullest proof

  671. of God

  672. and His glory

  673. right here in the flesh,

  674. dwelling amongst us,

  675. not just full of truth

  676. but also full of grace.

  677. For although we had

  678. the audacity

  679. to exchange the truth

  680. about God

  681. for a lie

  682. and to substitute

  683. our creaturely selves

  684. as gods

  685. into that high

  686. and holy place

  687. of glory

  688. only reserved for God,

  689. Jesus,

  690. the Son of God,

  691. He had the compassion

  692. to exchange His blood

  693. for our sin

  694. and to substitute

  695. His creator self

  696. as a man

  697. on a cursed cross

  698. of judgment

  699. reserved for sinners

  700. like us.

  701. Now I know

  702. that I haven't proved

  703. God to you this morning

  704. but to summarize

  705. what I've tried

  706. to present to you

  707. more than just reasons

  708. and arguments

  709. for God's existence

  710. is a narrative.

  711. A narrative

  712. that assumes

  713. that the God revealed

  714. to us in Christ

  715. is real

  716. and that we all

  717. implicitly know

  718. of this God.

  719. And not only that

  720. but I've tried to present you

  721. with a narrative

  722. that accounts for why

  723. we find it so hard

  724. to believe in God

  725. in the first place.

  726. We've wandered

  727. as the scriptures say.

  728. We've wandered away

  729. from His light

  730. and we don't see

  731. as we ought.

  732. Now you may or may not

  733. agree with me

  734. that this narrative

  735. is a plausible explanation

  736. of God's existence

  737. or of human unbelief

  738. but I hope

  739. that you could

  740. at least take some steps

  741. toward agreeing with me

  742. that this story

  743. of the Son of God

  744. pursuing wayward brothers

  745. and sisters

  746. and bringing them back home

  747. to His Father

  748. all at His own

  749. costly expense

  750. I hope you could agree

  751. with me

  752. that that is a beautiful story.

  753. A story unlike any other.

  754. And don't you want

  755. to believe

  756. that this is the God

  757. who made

  758. and sustains

  759. the world

  760. and who will one day

  761. save the world

  762. from itself.

  763. Jesus Christ

  764. come to dwell with us

  765. full of grace

  766. and truth.

  767. Will you pray with me?

  768. God I just pray

  769. that you would give us

  770. eyes to see

  771. what you have made

  772. self-evident

  773. and that we would not only

  774. encounter the truth

  775. but the way

  776. and the life

  777. of Jesus.

  778. Show us the beauty

  779. of the story

  780. that you've written

  781. and give us a longing

  782. to align ourselves

  783. with your ways

  784. and your story

  785. to know you

  786. as the God of love

  787. who sent your Son

  788. to save us

  789. even through his death.

  790. God help our unbelief.

  791. Help our unbelief

  792. I pray in Jesus' name.

  793. Amen.

  794. Amen.

  795. Amen.

  796. Amen.

  797. Amen.

  798. Amen.

  799. Amen.