Q&A - Can I Believe in the Existence of God?

I [singing] am guilty,

ashamed [music]

of what I've done, [singing]

what I've become. [music]

These hands are dirty.

I dare [singing] not lift them up to the

holy one.

You plead [singing] my cause.

You write my wrongs. [singing]

You [music] break my chains.

You overcome. [singing]

You [music] gave your life

to give [singing] me mine.

[music]

You say that I am free.

How can it be? [music]

Yeah.

How can it be? [music]

[singing]

I've [singing] been hiding.

Afraid [singing] I've let you down.

Inside I doubt [music]

that you [singing] still love me.

But [singing] in your eyes there's only

[music]

grace now.

>> [music]

>> You bleed [singing] my cards.

You [music] ride my wrong.

You break my chains.

You overcome.

You gave [music and singing] your life

to give me mine.

You [music] say that I am free.

[singing]

How can it be?

[music]

[singing]

How can it be?

[music]

Though [music and singing] I fall, you

can make me new.

[music] From [singing] this death, I

will rise with you.

Oh, the grace reaching

[music and singing]

out for me. Yes. How can it be?

How can it be?

[music]

You plead my cards. [singing]

You write my wrongs.

You break my chains. [music]

You overcome. [singing]

You gave your [music] life

to give me mine.

You say [music and singing] that I am

free.

You [music] plead my [singing] cause.

You ride my rules. [music]

You break my [singing] chains.

You overcome.

You gave [singing and music] your life

to give me mine.

You say that I am free.

How can [singing] it be?

[music]

How can it be? [music]

Jesus

[applause]

name. Amen.

So, we're in part two of a s sermon

series that I'm calling questions and

answers. Questions and answers. And uh

what we're doing is really just tackling

some of the biggest questions that

people have about Christianity that

people have uh about the faith,

questions that people are asking out

loud on social media, maybe to your

face. And there's other questions that

people are struggling with uh quietly

inside their own hearts. And so last

week we asked the question, how can

Christianity claim to be the one true

religion? How can Christianity claim to

be the one true religion? So, if you

have not um if you have not listened to

that, I would encourage you this week to

go back and listen to it on Facebook or

or YouTube or on our podcast. But I

really want you to be able to be able to

defend your faith or if you're

questioning faith, have faith. Um so, go

back and listen to that. And then this

week, we're going to ask a question, a

huge question is, can I believe in the

existence of God? Can I believe in the

existence of God? So to start with, I'm

going to give you a three-fold critique

of the biggest objections to belief in

God. And as I do, I want you to

understand that these objections come

with a faith of their own. So if you

have these objections, I want you to

understand that you're practicing faith.

Because many assume that disbelief is

natural or neutral and and belief

requires faith. But the strongest

objections for God rest on hidden faith

assumptions that if we're being

completely honest rely on leaps of faith

that are even greater than simply

believing that God exists. So the

question that I get more than any other

question is what about evil and

suffering? What about evil and

suffering? How can there be a God if

there is so much evil and suffering in

the world? How can there be a a God that

would allow bad things to happen to

seemingly good people? Well, this

objection assumes that if there were a

good reason for the suffering that God

would let me know that that he would

that I would be able to see it as if I'm

God. But why should we assume that? So,

think about it this way. Let's say that

you um you you watch Rocky one, okay?

And at the end of Rocky one, the hero

Rocky loses to Apollo Creed. All right.

And if I'm not giving a spoiler alert

because that movie's 50 years old. That

is so on you if you didn't know the end

of that movie yet. But if that's the

only one of the series that you watched,

you would probably leave disappointed.

You would be like, "Why did I just waste

my time watching this pointless movie

where the hero fails?" But Rocky one is

setting up Rocky 2. Without Rocky one,

there's no reason for a comeback. His

failure, get this, was formative. So, so

Rocky 2, Rocky comes back stronger than

ever. He comes back more determined than

ever. See, the fact that we cannot see a

reason for our suffering does not mean

that there isn't one. It just means we

don't see the whole picture. So, so for

example, if you look at a stained glass

window, but you put your nose up against

the stained glass, you don't see the

picture until you take some steps back,

right? And I remember my grandmother,

she used to do cross stitch and she

would always have this, she had this

horribly ugly green chair that she

always sat in to do her cross stitch.

And then one time I looked at it and I

saw it laying beside her chair and I was

like, "Oh no, grandma's losing it."

Because it was just threads all over the

place. It looked like a complete mess.

And um but then she picked it up and

flipped it around and there was this

beautiful picture on the other side. And

that's how God works. We don't see what

he's stitching together because our nose

is like pressed up against the glass or

we don't see the picture that's being

formed. His ways are not our ways. His

ways are greater than our ways. So just

because I can't see it doesn't mean that

it's not there. That my suffering

doesn't actually have a purpose. And

assuming that we would be able to see it

requires a level of faith that we think

that we are actually like God. So what I

do know for a fact is the way of the

world is wrong. This world is covered by

sin. It is full of evil and suffering

and violence and disease and death and

all these things that are our greatest

enemies. So what I do know for a fact

though is that God did not stay distant

from the world but he entered into the

world through Jesus Christ. Jesus says

in John 16:33

John 16:33

in this world you will have trouble. In

this Jesus was very honest with us

upfront. He says in this world you will

have trouble but be of good cheer

because why? For I have overcome the

world. Jesus willingly died on the cross

so that he could overcome the world. So,

as Tim Keller astutely puts it, I don't

know the reason for what suffering is,

but I do know the reason for suffering

for what suffering isn't. It can't be

that God doesn't love us. And it can't

be that Jesus doesn't care. Jesus did

not stand far off from our suffering. He

stepped into it. He walks with us now

through the valleys of the shadow of

death. And his victory is a promised

reward that we can all receive. And he

says that there is a day that is coming

where there'll be no more suffering and

no more death and no more pain. He'll

put all those things to rest. No other

religion offers that type of hope. So

question number two that we hear a lot

is what about those who don't hear about

Jesus? Jesus says in John 14:6, I am the

John 14:6

way, the truth, and the life. No one

comes to the father except through me.

John 14:6, I'm the way, the truth, and

John 14:6

the life. Nobody comes to the father

except through me. And so, you might

say, well, what about cultures that have

never heard the gospel? What about

people living in nations where the

government will not allow them to access

anything about Christianity? What about

people that don't have the Bible in

their own language? What about uh people

who cannot cognitively understand the

the gospel? What about them? if they're

only saved by faith in Jesus, then it

seems like God is being very unfair to

those people. And others would say,

"Well, I can't believe in a God like

that." Well, think about it this way.

Imagine you're in a a courtroom and the

judge is presiding over a case and he

walks in to to make his uh to to make

his final ruling. Um he's about to

deliver a verdict and this verdict is

based on things that you weren't privy

to. There's information that that just

as an observer that you don't have.

there was deposition that was behind

closed doors. There were there was

evidence that was not presented to you

uh for your approval. And so you're

you're looking at this judge and and you

might say, "Well, I don't understand how

the judge could possibly make a a good,

logical, just decision in this case."

But imagine you know something about the

judge. Imagine you know the judge

personally. Imagine that you know that

he's honest, that he's all about

justice, that he's compassionate, that

he's even sacrificial, that he's he's

full of mercy and grace. Friends, even

if you don't understand where the judge

came from on his ruling, you could still

trust the verdict because you know the

character of the judge. And that's how

we should approach this question. What

about people that have never heard about

Jesus? Well, we know some things about

God. We know three things in fact about

God. We know first and foremost that God

is all knowing. He knows every single

heart. He knows everything about every

single person. We also know for a fact

that God is a father. That means he

deeply cares for the people that he

created. Jesus told his disciples to

pray this way. Pray God our father. So

call him father. And then third, we know

that God is good. And that was evident

to us when we saw Jesus on the cross.

The cross shows us that God is good.

That he's willing to go to unimaginable

lengths to save his people. Jesus didn't

come to point the way to God and say,

"Hey, if you're good enough, then God

will accept you into his family." No, he

came to die on the cross to fulfill

every requirement that we need for

salvation. making this the most

accessible way to God that there could

possibly ever be for literally everyone,

every race, every gender, every

background. So, if we trust the

character of the judge, we can trust the

outcome of the case even when we don't

know every detail. And remember this,

the Bible says, "All who seek will

find." Paul says over and over that the

evidence about God is throughout all of

creation. All you have to do is open

your eyes and look around and you'll be

able to see God. All who seek will find

him. If God was willing to give his son

for the world, then he will deal with

every heart and every soul in a perfect,

loving, just way. Third biggest

objection that we often get about the

existence of God is what about the

failures of Christians? And I know I

touched on this last week, but I want to

come back to it this week. People reject

Christianity because of the harmful

actions of Christians. And that breaks

my heart. I hate that people develop a

bad taste in their mouth about

Christianity because of the way that

some Christians behave. But let me tell

you this, the problem is not and never

has been Christianity itself.

Please understand the problem has never

been Christianity. The problem is people

who call themselves Christians who live

inconsistent with the teachings of

Christ. That's why Paul implores us over

and over in the epistles in verses like

2 Timothy 3:14. He says, "Continue in

2 Timothy 3:14

what you have learned and become

convinced of. Be consistent in what you

believe. If you say you're a follower of

Christ, then follow Christ. Follow his

teachings. But for the sake of this e

exercise, I'm not going to go in that

direction. I want to go in a different

direction. And that's, did you notice

the critique of Christians is based on

behavior that is Christian in nature. So

people are like, "They're not acting

like they should." And you're like,

"Well, how should they act?" And they're

like, "They should act like Christians."

You see what I'm saying? They're using

the moral ob obligations of Christians

to argue against the way the Christians

are asking or acting. So there was a

historian, his name was John Somerville,

and he was a teacher at the UN a

professor at the University of Florida

and he would ask his students this

question every semester. He would say,

'Im Imagine that you were walking down

an alley and there was a blind woman

with her purse open and there was just

tons of money stuffed in her purse and

you know that you could take all of her

money and you would never ever get

caught. Should you take the money? And

now I'm not asking you. I know your

answer.

Should you steal it? Of course not.

Right? But then he asks a great

question. He says, "Why? Why should you

not steal the money? Is it because if

you got caught it would ruin your

reputation or is it because she has

rights as a human being? And nine out of

10 students would answer because she has

rights as a human being. And then

Somerville would say something pretty

surprising to the students. He would say

that idea as a history teacher he would

say that idea that every person has

inherent dignity and rights is not

something that most cultures have ever

believed.

He says that idea came exclusively from

Christianity.

The the Bible teaches that every person

rich or poor, strong or weak, is made in

the image of God. And because of that,

Christians were were told to to love

their neighbor, to to sacrifice for

others, to care for the poor, and to

forgive their enemies. That one even

rocked the world of the Buddhist monks.

They were like, "What? Forgive your

enemies?" like that that wasn't from

them. That was from from Jesus. And

those ideas have slowly reshaped the

foundations of the western world, which

means that the values that people assume

are just common sense are actually a

result of centuries of Christian

influence. And that's the point, right?

When we condemn injustice and oppression

and this lack of forgiveness, we are

appealing to the very principles that

Jesus himself established. Which brings

me to the best explanations for God. So

those are the three critiques, questions

that you often associate with with why

we should not believe that there's

actually a God. But there are three

things that we can look at that point to

the existence of God. And the first is

the moral law points to a moral

lawgiver. So every human being has a

deep sense of some things that are

either right or wrong. So when we see

injustice, racism, abuse, things like

like that, we don't just say, well, I

don't like that. We say we say those

things are wrong. We're not saying

that's not right to me personally. We

are saying those things are just

inherently wrong and they're wrong for

every people in every place. See, we

believe that people have rights and

dignity and we believe that injustice

deserves condemnation. But here's the

question. Where do those objections come

from? Why do we feel that way? Why do

why does every culture that's ever

existed feel in some ways this the same

way? See, if the universe is nothing

more than just matter and energy and and

chance, if we are just like highly

evolved animals, then morality is really

just not a binding thing. It's just

personal preference that can be based on

cultural opinions. So in that case, when

you say like you shouldn't do that, it's

no different than saying, well, I don't

like it when you do that. It's has no

impact globally.

But that's not how we live, is it? No.

We speak and act as if justice and human

dignity and moral obligation are real

things that everybody should have. And

so if this moral law truly exists and it

raises the the the question, where did

that law come from? Because to have a

moral law means you have to have a moral

lawgiver.

So, so if there's a real moral law that

binds us all together, then then the

most reasonable explanation for that is

that there's a moral lawgiver behind it.

So, so when we feel like stealing from

that that lady, taking her money, when

we feel like that is wrong or when we

feel like every human life has dignity

and value and justice is something that

we should fight for, we're not just

expressing our personal preferences. is

we are echoing the moral law that is

that is shown to us through Christianity

that is written on the very fabric of

creation. The reason that we all have

those feelings is because the creator of

the universe wrote his moral law on our

hearts. And that friends is the most

reasonable explanation for God as far as

morality is concerned. I love this one.

The the the other way you can look at

God is the precision of the universe

points to a designer.

One of the strongest arguments for the

existence of God is what we would call

the fine-tuning argument. Uh physicists

have discovered that the universe

operates according to very precise

constraints. Did you know that if any of

those numbers were different, when we're

talking about gravity and things like

that, if any of those numbers were

different, life on this Earth, on this

planet would be absolutely impossible.

If gravity was a little bit stronger, we

would all be smooshed. And if it was a

little bit weaker, then the universe

would expand so quickly that the stars

wouldn't be able to form and our planet

would just tear itself apart.

If the expansion rate of the universe uh

from the big bang and by the way the

Christians that that's ours they other

people don't get that that we're the big

bang people. Okay Genesis chapter 1 God

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

spoke the world into existence and bang

there was a world okay so we do believe

in a big bang and we can go back to the

original creation and see that the world

is expanding from one point that point

of singularity which scientists have now

seen. Um, so we know that that's a part

of of the Christian faith. But what if

if that was altered, if if that

expansion rate was altered by even a

fraction of a second, the world would

expand too fast or too slowly and it

would all fall apart. In other words,

the universe is incredibly calibrated

for life. So that leaves us with a a big

question. It's like, how? How? Well,

some people would say it's by chance,

and there's another group of people that

would say there are multiple universes

out there, and we just happen to be the

one of billions that was able to support

life. But think about it this way. If

you walk in a room and there's a hundred

dials on the wall and they are all set

to the perfect measurement so that every

single number there represented the

perfect way for life to exist, you would

not assume that that happened by

accident. you would assume that someone

came and set all of those dials so that

life could exist. And the fine-tuning

argument makes the same uh claim. As Tim

Keller says, fine-tuning doesn't prove

God beyond all doubt, but it makes

belief in God far more reasonable than

believing that everything just kind of

happens by accident. Lastly, a rational

universe points to a a rational creator.

So one of the most common objections to

belief in God is the claim that science

and reason have replaced faith. So

people say well I believe in science. I

believe in reason so I don't need to

believe in God. But there's an important

question that you need to ask yourself

if you feel that way and it's why do I

trust my reason in the first place? I

mean if the universe was purely material

then everything would exist because of a

blind chance. You know it just kind of

randomly comes together. Then our minds

are also a part of that random chance.

And so why why should we trust our our

instincts? See, evolution would only

require our brains to stay online long

enough to stay alive so that we can

reproduce and that would be it. That's

that's evolutionary theory. But that's

not how most of us operate, is it? We

want to know deeper truths. We try to

ration things out. We try to think

things through. We we try to imagine

where the universe came from. We think

about things that involve infinity one

way or the other. So why should we trust

our reasoning process if if it led us to

the conclusion that there is no God?

Christianity offers a a very different

explanation for why we seek those deeper

truths. The Bible teaches us that that

human beings are actually made in the

image of God. And that means our ability

to reason and think and discover truth

and understand the world around us comes

from that relationship with God. Not by

some accident. It's a reflection of of

the rational God who created a rational

universe. The reason our minds can

understand the world is because both our

minds and the universe were created by

the same creator. So, so if our minds

are just some accidental byproduct of

evolution or some other process, then we

have no reason to trust our mind. But

since our minds were designed by the

creator of the universe, we have the

ability to reason. And that makes

perfect sense. So the very act of of

trusting your reason points to a logical

explanation there there is a reasonable

God. So let me kind of tie all this

together. And by the way, all this is in

your notes if you need uh copies of

notes. I know it's like drinking out of

a fire hydrant. I get that. But I want

you to be equipped for um these kind of

questions to be asked to you in the

future. But let me kind of summarize

everything. So when you step back and

you just take a objective, honest look

at the world around you, certain things

keep pointing in the same direction.

There are clues littered all around you.

It's kind of like being in an episode of

Scooby-Doo. Like even Shaggy could pick

up on this stuff, right? Like it's

there. Just kind of follow the path.

Moral instinct, the fact that you

believe that something is truly wrong

and something is truly right. The fact

that the universe around you is so

incredibly fine-tuned to support life.

The fact that your mind is able to

reason and think about things beyond

just your immediate needs to to wander

off into these these creative mindsets

where we think about things that are so

much bigger than us. All of those things

are like clues that point to a creator.

They they point toward God. So, I was

hiking down the the Glady Fork of the

the Cheat River by myself um out in West

Virginia and it was uh snowy out and so

I wanted to take a little hike out into

the woods and I did but you know when

snow falls on stuff it kind of changes

things. It covers up the path and so I

kind of knew where I was going but on my

way back it's starting to get dark and I

realized that I had somehow gotten off

the path. So, I'm in a new area of the

woods that I had never been in before.

And I came across a cabin. And when I

looked at this cabin, I didn't even know

there were people that were living out

here. But when I looked at this cabin, I

saw smoke coming out of the chimney. I

saw some light coming out of few of the

windows. And I saw footprints in the

snow all around the cabin. And so,

logically, I could not prove that

someone was inside the cabin. you know,

I just can't say for 100% certainty,

hey, somebody is inside that that cabin.

But if I'm looking at the evidence

around me, the logical conclusion is,

hey, somebody is in the cabin. Now, I

can't honestly say at that point, well,

maybe the fire started itself, and maybe

somebody left some lights on from last

week, and maybe the all the footprints

are like a fox wearing boots running

around the house. you know, I I could go

that way, but but I don't go that way

because that's not where the logical

reasoning takes me. My logical reasoning

took me to the fact that there was

probably a mass murderer that lived in

that cabin

and I think they're in there right now.

So, you know what I'm going to do? I'm

going to skirt way out around the cabin

and take the long way to go home so I

don't wind up on a Netflix documentary.

That's the rational way to look at that

situation.

Now,

when you're talking about God, you have

to work with the information that you

have at hand. And so, I've given you

some of it. There's a whole lot more

that you can uncover, but the the

logical conclusion is when you're

looking at the existence of God is that

someone is in the house. our desire for

morality. Our desire for uh to our

ability to see the precision of the

cosmos, our ability to to reason things

out. This is just like the smoke from

the chimney or the light from the

windows or the footprints in the snow.

They all point to the logical conclusion

that someone is behind it all. So, so

Dorothy, there is a man behind the

curtain. And it's my belief that far and

away the most logical, the clearest

revelation of who that person is behind

the scenes that's running it all comes

from the Christian faith and comes from

the Holy Scripture. Because they tell us

that that entity who created all things

and holds all things together is Yahweh

God. And the best news of all is that

Yahweh God did not just make the

universe and step away. He actually

stepped into the suffering of the

universe that he created. The suffering

that was caused by our sinful choices

and he sent his son into that context to

provide us with the ability to be saved.

So yes, I can't stand up here with 100%

certainty and say there is a God, but I

can give you enough rational evidence

that when you look at all the different

paths that are out there for you that

you can conclude that wow, the the

logical rational explanation for why all

of this exists is God. And as you search

for that God, you will uncover the truth

in the scriptures that God loved you

enough to send his son, Jesus, to die

for you. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much for the

opportunity to preach and teach your

word today. Lord, I pray that uh you

would just touch our hearts with with

logic. Lord, you gave us the ability to

reason things out. You gave us the

ability to to study things with a

scientific approach. Lord, you gave us

the desire to to know more about the

world around us. And I just pray that as

many of my brothers and sisters walk

through that that that life where they

they want to look into things in more in

a deeper way, not just to take things at

surface value, but to really understand

like who we are and where we came from

and what's what's our purpose here. What

should we be doing with our time? I pray

as we seek those answers that you would

do what you promised, which is to reveal

yourself to us. And Lord, we know that

can come from from scripture. We know

that comes from our prayer life. We know

that comes from testimony from other

people and scientific research and

archaeology and all these things that

that point [music] right back to the

fact that we live in a world that was

created by you. We live in a world where

you established humanity and you gave us

this incredible gift of free will, the

ability to choose you or reject you. But

Lord, you didn't just leave us alone in

our plight after Adam and Eve sinned.

You you gave us explanations for things.

You you explain why suffering happens.

You give us the hope of knowing that our

suffering has a purpose and that you are

not distant from it, but you understand

it because you've walked through it

yourself in the form of Jesus. Lord, you

give us confidence to know that this is

not this world was not created by random

chance. Lord, that there is a meaning to

it all. That we do have value. We do

have dignity. We do have purpose that

goes even beyond our our lifespan on

this planet.

Lord, you instill within us a a

confidence,

the ability to reason, the ability to

know that some things are right and some

things are wrong to help us make good

choices. And then for the Christians in

the room, you give us this beautiful

gift of the the Holy Spirit to help seal

those things and help us to [music] make

good decisions when we're faced with

those opportunities,

Lord. But most of all, you gave us the

picture of Jesus on the cross. The world

changed that day when he died. Not only

did our calendars change, but the the

world changed.

Things got immediately better when Jesus

came back from the dead. Because now, no

longer did we have to to strive for

salvation. No longer did we have to

place our our faith in some future event

that had not happened yet and some

Messiah that we had not met. that after

the cross and after the resurrection, we

can look back and see Jesus high and

lifted up, taking our place on that

cross, paying the price for our sins,

and then being buried in that tomb and

everybody wondering, wait, was it real?

Was he really God's son? And then all of

the sudden on that Easter Sunday when he

rose from the dead, we got to see him

alive and well as he appeared to

hundreds of people. And then he gives us

this gift of the Holy Spirit afterwards

as we place our faith in him and made

the most accessible way to God that's

ever been created. So I pray if there's

any in the room that have not traveled

down that road that was created uh for

us through Jesus.

Lord, I pray today would be the day

where they'd walk down that road, where

they place their faith in you just by

saying something like, "God, I know I'm

a sinner and I need a savior. I believe

that savior's name is Jesus." by

believing in their heart that Jesus

truly was who he said he was

by asking for forgiveness of their sin

and by placing their faith in Jesus as

their Lord.

That's all that's required for for faith

for salvation.

So I pray if there's any that that did

that today, Lord, that you would help

[music] them to have the courage to let

somebody know about that big decision so

that we can celebrate with them and help

them take their next steps. And Lord, as

we close this service with

a song of of worship, I pray that you

would allow us, Lord, to really enter

into a state of worship to really be

grateful for all the things that you do

for us every day, things we see and

things we don't. To just come to you

with hearts that are not only

worshipful, but burdened for others who

may not know you. And that we might take

advantage of our opportunities to to

defend our faith and share our faith

this week.

I pray.