Does God Exist? Series

Introduction:

A. The story is told of a family who had two young boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous.

1. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their school or neighborhood, their sons were probably involved.

2. They boys' mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys.

3. The clergyman agreed, but asked to see them individually.

4. So the minister met with her 8-year-old, one morning, and was to see the older boy that afternoon.

5. The minister, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, “Where is God?”

6. The boy's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open, but he made no response.

7. So the minister repeated the question in an even sterner tone, “Where is God!!?”

8. Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, “WHERE IS GOD!?”

9. The boy screamed, bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him.

10. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, “What happened?”

11. The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, “We are in BIG trouble this time, dude. God is missing - and they think WE did it!”

B. Gabriel Vahanian was a French Christian theologian who was a part of a movement within academic circles in the 1960s called the "death of God" movement.

1. In 1961 he wrote a book called The Death of God: The Culture of Our Post-Christian Era.

2. He argued that modern secular culture had lost all sense of the sacred, lacked any sacramental meaning, had no transcendental purpose or sense of providence. He concluded that for the modern mind “God is dead.”

3. Time magazine picked up on this growing atheistic movement and placed on the cover of the April 8, 1966 edition the question: “Is God Dead?”

4. The accompanying article addressed the growing atheistic spirit in the United States.

5. We all can see how atheism has grown even more in America and Europe in the last 50 years.

C. Today we ask the question: Is God Dead? Or better yet, Does God Exist?, or Did God ever Exist?

1. Last week we began a new sermon series called “Got Questions? Answering Faith’s Great Questions.”

2. Last week we spent some time talking about the fact that doubt is a universal experience and that God is okay with us having doubts, asking questions, and looking for good answers.

D. Most fundamental to all faith questions is the question of God’s existence.

1. Without getting a good handle on this question, there is no need to explore the other ones.

2. Obviously, if there is no God, then the Bible is not God’s Word, and Jesus is not God’s Son.

3. And if there is no God, then He is not responsible for suffering or sending people to hell.

4. So, I think we all would agree that the question of God’s existence is most essential.

E. Certainly God could make His existence undeniable, indisputable and irrefutable.

1. But if God did this, then there would be no such thing as faith, nor a need for it.

2. God, in all His wisdom and according to His plan, has made faith a foundational and critical part of our relationship with Him.

3. I point your attention to last week’s Scripture Reading from Hebrews 11: 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see…6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

4. So faith is necessary, but as I said last week, the faith that is necessary is not blind faith.

5. I believe that God has given us enough evidence that gives us reasons to believe, but not so much evidence that faith is not required.

F. Carl Sagan, former American agnostic astronomer and author, when questioned about God usually said something condescending like: “Well, I’m not saying I know there is no God. It’s just that if there is, there isn’t any evidence for it.”

1. I don’t believe that is true. I think that there is a lot of evidence for God’s existence.

2. If someone is looking for irrefutable proof for the existence of God, then they won’t find it.

3. But if someone is looking for evidence, or strong clues, or divine fingerprints, then you can find them in many places.