The God of Common Sense | Clayton Hentzel

How are you doing, man? It's good to be with you guys.

To those of you who are a part of our Crossing inside family

and to, those of you who served to make the crossing inside a

reality. God bless you.

I absolutely love getting to see all of those baptisms and lives

changed because a lot of people would give up on them, but not

our God and not as people. And I want you to know, we are

in your corner on Easter weekend.

This year, we started a brand new sermons.

Series called, if we all have questions and here at the

Crossing, we believe that we all deserve answers this sermon

series. If we're being straightforward,

is designed to help those who have a faith.

Strengthened it to those, who have lost their faith, to help

them to find it and to those who want to Faith an opportunity to

start it. I don't want to welcome all of

you joining from all of our different locations.

Those of your part of our online family, as well, as those of you

who are part of the Crossing inside each week, we are doing

our best to navigate some questions regarding the

foundation of our faith in Jesus Christ.

And our goal is that as our faith is strengthened that our

love and Devotion to God would be deepened.

Now, while we're going through the sermon series, there might

be some of you with this new found knowledge.

Trying to go around thumping people with it.

Right? But listen what it says in First

Corinthians Paul says this knowledge puffs up.

While love builds up our Newfound knowledge and

understanding is not a license for you to go around.

Pummeling people with arguments and debate.

That's not how we're supposed to operate.

It should inform our ability and our approach to loving the

people around us but I don't want you going around clubbing

people. Well have you thought of this?

Okay that's not because listen as Christians those of you call

the crossing home, okay? Here's the deal.

Our goal is not to win arguments although we might win some

arguments but we're not trying to get into an argument.

Absolutely just Pummel somebody for the sake of an argument.

Okay, we're trying to do something better than that.

This is what we're trying to do. Our goal is to win people to

Jesus. Okay, let me put it this way.

Let me explain it. Have you ever won an argument?

Raise your hand, ladies. Married ladies.

Okay, we get it. All right.

Did it help? I'll give you, we're going to

try and get some stuff. Handled in.

Your marriage is winning the argument the best pathway or

maybe posing some questions and helping them navigate answers.

If you're wanting to get a better marriage, I would tell

you winning. Every argument.

Probably isn't the way, but how you navigate the arguments makes

all the difference in the world. Today, I want to talk to you

guys about some common sense, Arguments for the existence of

God. Now to those of you who are

Skeptics or Or atheists and you're joining us at one of our

locations. I am so glad that you are here

and on the outset, I want to apologize for calling them

common-sense arguments. I'm just not smart enough to

come up with a better term for it so it is not to say that you

like you're an idiot or you're weird for not seeing things the

way that that I see him or that other people seem, it's just

more about philosophical approach or philosophical

Arguments for the existence of God.

So today we're going to be taking a deep look at

Philosophical questions, concerning the existence of God

and I'm going to do so for the most part without talking about

the Bible or using the Bible and I'm going to do it for the most

part without talking about Jesus or referencing.

Jesus. Now before any of you guys start

trying to email me, I am not saying that I don't believe in

God or Jesus or the Bible, but if you are engaging in

conversations with people on the at the philosophical level, to

use the Bible and to you Use Jesus would be by their

definition circular reasoning. Okay?

And so I just want to kind of take you through these

philosophical arguments through a philosophical lens.

Here's why I'm doing this. Every year in the summer, a

group of my high school friends, get together for a two or

three-day camping trip. And every year around the

campfire, we end up talking about God.

And let me give you a little Context, one of my friends is a

believer in Jesus. But there is absolutely nothing

about his life that even remotely resembles him being a

Christian. In fact, he would be like the

worst example, okay? Like you almost want to be like

stop, stop talking about Jesus because that that you're not

helping the situation. He's the one who every part of

his life is always absolutely falling apart and he is always

making the wrong decision, like pick up $100.

Or run a nail through your hand. He will pick the nail through

your hand, every time. It's just, that's just how he

is, hardwired I love him but that's just him.

Another one of my friends has his life completely together, he

believes in Jesus, but Jesus to him is more of a Republican

president than Jesus on the cross.

And so his life from the outside looks very much like a Christian

but there's really nothing in his heart.

That is Jesus centered. And then I have a third friend

who is a full-blown atheist and about 11:30 at night on on a

Friday, they'll start going. So Clayton, tell us about God.

And you know, I don't which I'm thrilled because, you know,

sometimes it's like, hey, Clayton we can't drive anymore.

Can you take us to a strip club and I'm like, nope, we're not

doing that so they're like, all right, fine talk to us about

God. Like all right, God's better

than glitter so we and every year, when I'm getting ready to

go on this trip, I prep for it, I get all geared up.

I want to make sure that I'm ready to handle some of the

questions that they're going to ask me and that's important.

I mean, second Timothy chapter 4 says this preach the word.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Be prepared in season and out of season.

And when I'm getting ready to go on that trip, I know that it's

going to be in season the problem for us as Christians.

Is you're going to have a lot of out-of-season moments.

Like I get a prep for this, it's already on my calendar, I know

what's coming but some of you you're going to show up at the

office tomorrow and tragedies going to hit somebody in your

office, somebody that you care about some of you, you're going

to get a phone call this week. And because of things that are

happening in their life, they're going to ask you questions and

you're going to find yourself in an oak.

Go back, one second. In an out of season moment.

And as Christians, we need to be prepared in season and out of

season 1st, Peter says that this way.

But in your hearts, Revere Christ is lord, always be

prepared to give an answer to everyone.

Who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have you.

And I need to have a reason to answer for every person we come

into contact with for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ,

but there's a way that we're supposed to do it here.

Keeps going, but do this with gentleness and respect, keeping

a clear conscience which means that it's not just about being

prepared to talk to people about Jesus.

But the way we talk to people about Jesus matters is that as

our contacts, I want to walk you through some philosophical

Arguments for a belief in the existence of God.

Now these things that I'm going to walk you through our

questions that everybody has to answer.

These are not exclusively Christian questions.

They're not a theistic questions or skeptical questions.

These are questions that all of humanity has to answer.

And how you answer these questions will shape how you

live your life. It will shape your world view.

Here's the first question. How do we account for the

beginning of the universe? How did the universe come into

existence? This is an argument of origin.

It shows up in three parts. I'll walk you through them.

Okay. Whatever begins to exist has a

Cause Everything that came into existence how to cause something

caused it. You came into existence.

There was a Cause. It might have been Valentine's

Day. It might have been some dead

flowers in a vase and might have been some country music or dimly

lit place but whatever begins to exist has a cause second thing

the universe began to exist. Science will tell you this, the

universe had a beginning. So the third part is the

universe has a cause what could cause a universe something, or

someone has to, cause the universe to come into existence.

That means that something outside of time, outside of

space, outside of matter, had to be the cause and for many

people, The Logical reasonable conclusion.

Is that there is only one thing outside of time, outside of

space and out. Out of matter.

The name we give him is God in order for there to be a

beginning you have to have time space and matter all come into

existence at the exact same time.

Let me explain that a little bit more if you have time and matter

but no space. Where would you put it?

If you have matter and space but no time, when would you put it?

If you have time and space but no matter what began to exist,

the Bible answers. This question in the first 10

words of the Bible. Count with me.

Ready in the beginning, God created the heavens and the

Earth watch closely. In the beginning.

That's time. God, created the heavens that

space Earth. That's matter.

It gets a little bit more fun than that.

You have a trinity of Trinity's that show up, time is past

present and future space is length, width.

And depth matter is, solid liquid gas, you have a trinity

of Trinity's created by the Trinity, kind of weird thing

that happens there Now the second question we have to ask

ourselves is how do we account for so much design in our

universe? This is also kind of broken into

three categories. The first one is called

specified complexity, so if I were to take all of the parts

for an airplane, and put them in a big box, like Legos, we would

have complexity. We see complexity everywhere.

Specified complexity is the difference between all the

components for an airplane in a box and if we could put them all

together and we could find a pilot, we could go somewhere

nice and instead of living where we live, right?

We just need a pilot there. We have one in Macomb so we'll

make one big enough for all of us now.

What are the chances that a tornado could go through a

junkyard and assemble all of the pieces to make an airplane?

I would say slim to none. So, how do you account for so

much specified complexity? We are marveling right now at

some of the advancements, in Prosthetics that what hands are

being able to do that have been manufactured by mankind, or how

legs that are the prosthetics for legs and how much they're

able to accomplish. But it's taking all of our human

capacity and years of learning and deep research for us to

design a leg. That works, like, the leg we

already have. How do you account for the fact

that what we have by accident? Is so much better than what we

have by our human design. The second thing that we have to

navigate is irreducible complexity.

This is the difference between motorcycles and mouse traps.

So you guys are all getting ready for motorcycle season.

I've been hearing you guys crank them up in your garage and I'm

super happy for you. I'm glad you guys have those

work hours and while you guys are liking those things up.

Now the motorcycle as a means of transportation, you can take an

awful lot off of your motorcycle and it's still be a mode of

transportation. You can take those cool.

Saddle bags off and it would still work.

You could take the blinkers off, it would still work.

You could take the brakes off, it would still work.

You could take your foot pegs off, it would still work.

You can keep taking stuff off of your motorcycle and it's still

be a mode of transportation. You can even take some of the

bolts off, and I've seen a couple of you driving around,

and I'm pretty sure that motorcycle is missing a few

bolts, right? But it's still a mode of

transportation. However, a mousetrap cannot be.

Deuced whatsoever. It is irreducibly complex.

Now, what I'm talking about Mass traps, I'm not talking about

these Millennial mouse traps that are designed to protect the

mice's feelings or anything like that.

I'm talking Wham. I'm talking Mouse ending family

tree. Shattering mouse traps right?

You know, I'm talking about those real ones.

And if you take a regular mouse trap, every real mousetrap,

Christian mousetrap has five components that has the platform

that everything sits on. It has the spring.

It has the lock. It has the trigger and it has

the arm. Okay.

If you remove any of these things, it stops being a

mousetrap. if you remove the arm, it's just a really weird

Mouse feeder, Right? If you remove the lock, it's

just a custom device gets this thing right now.

Where does this show up in our lives?

Well, on easy one. To point two would be RI RI is

irreducibly, complex. It could not have evolved.

It shows up in order for it to exist.

It is irreducibly complex. For instance, the I cannot work

without the presence of the optic nerve to regulate, the

pressure of the fluid around the eye, the eye without eyelids

will not work for long because our eyes require continuous

washing and moisture. If you go further unless there's

an eye, there's no point in the duct.

That's around our eye, that produces the tears, or the duck

that passes through solid bone, that whisks that water away

where it dissipates in. Our nasal cavity as we breathe

all of those things have to be come into existence at the exact

same time for the eye to work. And then the third piece of the

design argument is fine-tuning as our understanding of science

continues to grow. We are becoming more and more

aware of how fine-tuned the Earth is for the sustaining of

life. And scientists have discovered

that there are about 150 constants that have to operate

in absolute perfection and balance in order for you and I

to be able to exist. One of the one of the

astrophysicists from Caltech Hugh, Ross is talking about the

ratio between the nuclear force and the expansion rate of the

universe which is one of the constants and he says it has to

be fine-tuned To 1 in 10 to the thirty seventh power.

Now that word are that number means nothing to you.

And it means nothing to me, I get it, we're not that kind of

smart people but let me explain to you visually what that would

look like 1 in 10 to the 37th power.

Here is explains it this way. You'd have to take a dime and

cover all of North America in one layer of Dimes.

Then you need to add a second layer and you would keep adding

layers until you reach the moon 238,000 miles away.

Then you need to do that on 1 billion additional countenance

and then take one dime and spray paint.

It red and put it somewhere in that mix Mix somewhere on the 1

billion. Continent stacked with dimes one

layer at a Time, 238,000 Miles High.

That is the level of precision for just one of the 150

constants necessary for you and I are constants necessary for

you and I to be in this moment right now.

Imagine when we land on Mars with humans and we discover a

pocket watch. Our natural inclination would be

somebody has been here. Because how do we account for

the design of a pocket watch? Unless there was some kind of

watch maker, maybe watches are too complex.

Let's get as simple as we possibly can take a look at

Stonehenge. Now you can go home.

You can check this. Wikipedia says that this way,

archaeologists believe that Stonehenge was built.

Anywhere from 3,000 to 2,000 BC. So let me get this straight, we

look at a bunch of rocks that have been stacked.

And we immediately think some guy did that.

But we look at all the complexities of the universe in

our hands and our cardiovascular system works and everything

that's happening inside of our brain.

And we think somehow that that evolved without the hand of God.

Now let me, let me show you what I mean by this.

You and I we look at things everybody, we look at things and

we instinctively know the difference between random

results and deliberate design. If you want to play a joke on

your neighbors this week on the middle of the night, go out let

off a couple fireworks about 2:00 2:30 in the morning.

And then in your driveway right next to your mailbox.

Stack o, put a rock up out there and then tomorrow night, that

off another firework about 3:30 in the morning.

And then put another rock on top of it.

And your neighbors are walking their bougie, dogs up and down

your street. Like what's going on out here?

Why are you stacking all these rocks?

Yeah we're not stacking rocks. We've been letting off

fireworks. If you've been hearing those

bangs last night? Well yeah, let him off in the

front yard and these rocks just start stacking themselves in the

front yard You know what they would say to you, are you okay?

Is this a cry for help? They look at you little weird.

We look at stacked rocks and we assume someone stacked them.

But we look at a universe and our natural.

Inclination for so many people is, it's just an accident.

It's just random. The final philosophical

argument, there's a lot more, but the final one that I'm going

to do for you today is an argument from morality.

It's the moral argument and the moral argument exists in three

parts, here's the first. If God does not exist, then

objective morals and duties, do not exist.

I'm going to unpack this way more in two weeks, so I'm just

giving you like the simplified version today, because in two

weeks, I'm going to talk to you guys about God and culture and

how we as Christians are supposed to live in that

tension, but if God does not exist, then objective morals and

duties, do not exist. Then, the second part is this

objective morality does exist. There are things that we all

agree. Are objectively true

objectively? Right.

Objectively wrong. And then, the third part would

be therefore God exists. Let me unpack that when we hear

kids fighting in our house or when you go on your vacation to

the beach and you see you, you pick your beach chair.

And then somebody comes along and takes all of your belongings

off of the beach chair. And then they take your chair,

we get into an argument with them about what is fair about,

what is right? How would you like it?

If somebody else treated you that way, we immediately begin

to appeal to a higher moral law and every time we discuss these

things we are talking about something that exists Beyond

ourselves. This basis for right and wrong

exists Beyond us. We believe that the person were

talking to knows that this is right and wrong as well that

they sense it. Because when you engage in the

argument, they don't argue about whether or not that is real or

not about whether or not they have violated this moral law,

what they do whether or not the moral law exists, they spend all

of their time trying to show you how they didn't violate that.

At higher moral law. How can you fight about what is

right and wrong? Unless there is some level of

universal acceptance as to what is, right and what is wrong, and

anytime you start talking about, right and wrong, we are making

moral claims Imagine a country or a civilization where the

opposite of the virtues that we hold to be deer, were praised,

imagine a country were lying, was praised over truth-telling.

We're stealing was valued above hard work.

What about running from Battle? Instead of staying in the fight,

that on Veterans Day. We didn't praise all of those

who served. But we praised all of those who

were dishonorably discharged because they ran from the

battlefield. Imagine that the father of the

year, award didn't go to the man who stayed and struggled, and

provided and and suffered along for his family.

Instead, the father of the year award went to the man who had

abandoned the most kids. Imagine that kind of society.

She there are certain qualities that have Universal acceptance

as standards to be upheld and anyone who objects to these

standards will only object to them, until they are on the

receiving end of their absence. Somebody who steals from you

could make the moral claim stealing isn't wrong, but then

the moment they agree to that and someone steals from them,

they will not be going. That's totally fine.

They'd be gone. How could you do this?

Somebody says you don't have to, you can hit anybody, you want be

fine until they get punched in the mouth and then like, I don't

like that moral claim anymore. We all have to live under the

and we all know what these are these moral laws exist within

us. But they come from Beyond us.

There is something or someone pushing us towards a behavior

that at times is not in our best interest.

So it couldn't be Evolutionary. Here's what I mean.

God forbid on your way home today.

You see a car that has driven into are you, you watch a car

drive into a pond and you know that there are people in there

that are on the verge of drowning and instinctively, you

will find yourself caught between two worlds, knowing that

if you were to go into those Waters, you could get Dragged

In, you could get yourself caught up in the seat belts and

you could get drug down into the depth of the pond as well. and

at the same time, You feel this sense of?

I must engage to try to save. Where does that conflict come

from? Because all of us would

experience it some and greater degrees than others.

But in that moment, it is not about self-preservation that

were being called to were being called to something else.

Something deeper, there is something or someone pushing us

towards a behavior that at times is not in our own self-interest.

If this did not exist. If this moral law did not exist,

we would have no basis for the frustration.

We feel when people do us wrong or the guilt, we experience when

we know we do wrong. And where could this have come

from? It couldn't have come from our

laws because our laws are simply a reflection of what we already

know to be true. We don't need a law that says

stealing is wrong for us to know that stealing is wrong.

The law just simply recognizes what we all already know to be

true. And if even if there wasn't a

law, when somebody stole from us, it wouldn't Rob us or we

would, we would we would no longer not be under the pain and

the feeling of having someone steal from us.

So how do you and I move forward.

How do you and I navigate this tension?

Because if it's not coming from ourselves, then there must be a

moral law Giver who could judge between what is right and wrong

between us. Because if it was subjective If

it was just my moral claims versus your moral claims who

could judge between us, how do you choose, who is right?

And who is wrong, if all truth claims are all moral claims are

simply subjective, what right? Would we have to protest

slavery? What?

Right? Would you?

And I have to object to sex trafficking.

What right? Did we have to fight against

Nazi Germany? In World War 2?

If there wasn't some moral law, that was governing us saying,

this is wrong and we must do something about it.

All of these arguments, the arguments of origin, the

arguments from designed, the moral argument are designed to

point us to a cause to a base Asus and logically.

In my opinion, the most simplistic and the most

sophisticated answer as that, there is a God who did the

creating the designing and forms.

The basis of our moral understanding that God is

writing these codes on our hearts.

Why does this matter? I'll tell you my opinion, this

means there is a God. And if there is a God, that

means that I was created by him. And so, were you that you were I

mean by him that there are standards that he will hold you

and I to if God exists then I must know him and so must you I

must follow him and so should you it demands?

My full acceptance and my complete adherence, I'm trying

to say this. If God exists, I believe that he

would preserve his word that he would make sure that you and I

have access to the truth and his word states.

That there is a life after This life.

And those that this life is not all that there is, and that

those who do not have a relationship with him at the end

of this life. Hell, awaits.

And to those who are in this life, who have an intimate

personal relationship with Jesus Christ on the other side of it

Heaven. Awaits, which means that as

Christians, this becomes our mission to make sure that

everybody everywhere comes to a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Look what it says in mark. I mean, he said to them, this is

Jesus. Go into all the world and preach

the gospel to all creation. What's the gospel that God sent

his one, and only son to die on the cross for the Forgiveness of

our sins. Why do we tell this gospel?

I'll tell you why, because whoever believes and is

baptized, will be every say this word saved.

This is our mission. This is why we do what we do,

but whoever does not believe Will be condemned.

There is good news here. If you can see that God is real,

if you can believe that Jesus is Alive.

If you can believe that he died on the cross for your sins,

three days later Rose from the grave, what that means is you

can come into an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. You don't have to do life alone,

you have purpose and meaning, and significance, and dignity.

You are more than just the sum of your parts.

You are an image bearer of God and if you're a Christian, these

become our marching orders, this becomes the thing that focuses

all the other things in our life and I hope you'll do that.

We're moving to a time of decision.

So a while back. Jennifer and I when we moved to

Quincy, we moved in this neighborhood and our

neighborhood is kind of serious about their yards, a little too

serious. If I'm if I'm being honest with

you about 6:00 in the morning, you'll see people out there just

that one leaf was really out of whack, the raking all the time,

they're mulching all the time. There, striping their yards.

And then there's us. And we're just kind of like,

should we mow it this month? Okay.

And we started out and I was, I was pushed mowing it, but I

always worried that like, if I became skinny, people would see

me as even more vain than I already am.

And so, I just made the discipline decision to just keep

this body. So that way people would lust

more and focus on Jesus more. So I bought a riding lawnmower

man down. Yeah.

Actually I financed it and put it in my wife's name so my wife

has a lawnmower and and I started mowing my yard more

frequently but it still didn't look as good as everybody else

in the neighborhood and in part that's because we have jobs.

And they have a lot of free time. but I was like, how do I

how do I dominate my neighbors? I was like, who has the

best-looking grass on my baseball parks, professional MLB

Parks. They have great looking yard.

So I hopped on YouTube and I was like, how do they do it?

How do they stripe? And they were talking about, you

know, people edging. So I went and borrowed Denny's

edger and I edged. My yard looks fantastic.

And then I'm watching this YouTube video about how you edge

your yard and the guy who does one of the baseball field says

if you want to have really straight lines.

So that way you can you know crosshatch it and checkerboard

it and put cool stripes in it. You got to pick something off in

the distance. And you got a focus on it and

you drive your mower to it. He goes, if you look at the

wheel, your lines are going to get all out of place.

If you look just a couple of feet in front of you, your lines

are going to get all over the place.

You got to, you got to pick something in the distance and

you got to focus on it and drive to it.

Here's what I think. The moral argument, the argument

from design, the argument of origin is God going.

Look at me. I'm real.

Look at me come to me and I will make your path straight.

God is saying hey if you're out there and you're looking for

meaning, look at me, you're looking for purpose.

Look at me, you're looking for some Direction.

Look at me, you want some hope. Look at me.

You want some hope or help? Look at me.

If you're looking for salvation, for rescue for forgiveness, for

grace, for Mercy. Look at me, if you're looking

for love, look at me. You and I were looking at her

life. Lives and they're not straight

but maybe it's because we've been looking at the wrong thing

and God is crying out to you philosophically.

Look at me and some of you, some of us.

We kind of get done with our lives and we've been Mowing and

our lines are all jacked up. And then we get mad at God at

the results of Our Lives. But we were never looking at him

to direct our life. And then we blame God for the

sum of a math question that we didn't invite him in two.

If you're here today, I've got great news for you.

If you've never started a relationship with Jesus Christ,

He is a master at Lon Rejuvenation, he can make the

Crooked lines straight. He can take years of damage and

he can restore it. In fact, I've seen our God

restored things in such a beautiful way.

That people will say. I mean, I never would want to go

through that again, but I got to be honest because I went through

what I went through. I'm in a place.

I never thought I'd be. That is how good our God

redeems. So if you've been spending your

whole life, not looking at God, you can start looking today.

If you're going, I want the hope of Heaven in my life, you can

believe and you can be baptized, and you can start an intimate

personal relationship with him. And so just a few moments,

there's gonna be some people over there by the baptistry that

would love an opportunity to talk with you about that.

Now to the rest of you in the room, you already have your

relationship with Jesus Christ. Kind of level with you.

I mean, I love being your password, but can I level with

you sometimes? We're like fat people giving

diet advice, We're chunky people giving Fitness advice.

We're trying to tell our neighbors how to mow their yard.

We've never even paid to have our dandelion sprayed, like,

we're trash and we know it, but we're just not admitting it.

Like, well, you know what you should do as Christians.

How can we be telling everybody else to look at Jesus in the

problems in their life? And not look at Jesus and the

problems of Our Own This is what Paul says, Paul says, to a group

of people follow me as I follow Christ.

Tough question here. if you were to talk to somebody who didn't

know Jesus and you were to tell them to follow Jesus, like you

with their life, be any better, Will they be making any

different decisions? Or do they just have a different

calendar appointment on a Sunday morning?

It's got to be more significant than that.

And so here's what I'm asking you to do.

If you're a Christian, I'm asking you to pray that God

would help you to start truly following him, truly trusting

him, the God would use you as a city on a hill, a lamp on a

stand to point people to draw people to the love of Our

Savior. Jesus Christ.