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God Really Exists. Really! Series
Contributed by Jeff Strite on Sep 13, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: What proofs did David believe proved God’s existence, and what can those proofs do for our faith?
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TITLE: God Is Real – Really TEXT: Psalm 19
OPEN: There’s the story of a college philosophy professor asked one question on his final exam. He picked up a chair, put it on his desk, and wrote on the board, “Using everything we have learned this semester, prove that this chair does not exist.”
Philosophy classes get into that kind of thing.
The students opened their notebooks and wrote as much as they could think of for a while hour, some of them churning out 30 pages of heady philosophical debate and logic.
But one student turned in his paper after less than a minute and he was the only one to get an “A.” What did he write so quickly that turned out to be just the right answer?
He wrote: (pause and shrug) “What chair?”
APPLY: Last week we began our sermon series on Basic Training.
We are the army of God, soldiers of Christ. And we serve under a great commander in chief.
And we are at war with a powerful and treacherous enemy: Satan.
As we noted last week, Satan’s goal is not only to destroy us, but also to undermine God. And one of the devil’s primary objectives towards that end is to attack the truths of Christianity. If Satan can damage these truths, then he can weaken our faith.
We also found that one of the primary reasons Satan hates truth, is because it is his greatest weakness. If we understand and hold to God’s truth, then the devil will be defeated.
This Sunday we’re dealing with the truth of God’s very existence.
Attacking this truth lies at the very cornerstone of Satan’s battle plan. He will do whatever he can to get people to doubt God.
In the beginning, when he got Eve into a discussion about the tree, he asked her “Does God REALLY say?” Implying that God could not be trusted.
But with others in our world, Satan ramps up the argument. He wants to get them to the point where they not only don’t trust God… but that God doesn’t even exist. He wants to get people to the point where they ask: What God?
And, there are people in our world who look at what we believe and ask that very question.
They either say they don’t BELIEVE God exists (atheists)
OR they say they can’t KNOW if God exists (agnostics)
Both groups basically say: “We’ve not seen enough evidence to believe God exists”
One such individual supposedly confronted an old Quaker and taunted him:
"Have you ever seen God?
Have you ever felt God?
Have you ever smelled God?
Ha! And you say you have a God!"
In other words: where’s the evidence? Where’s the proof?
The Quaker thought for a couple of moments and then replied,
"Hast thou ever seen thy brains?
Hast thou ever felt thy brains?
Hast thou ever smelled thy brains?
(pause for effect) Ha! And thou sayest thou hast brains!"
Now, I don’t if that story is true or not… but Scripture agrees with that old Quaker. In Psalm 53:1 David declares: “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.”
Why would such a person be a fool?
Well, because, there’s more than enough evidence to believe God exists.
But what’s the evidence?
In Psalm 19 David tells us why he believed in God.
1st – he states that created world around us literally cries out that God exists.
Look again at the first 6 verses of this Psalm:
The heavens DECLARE the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they POUR FORTH SPEECH; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. THEIR VOICE GOES OUT into all the earth, THEIR WORDS to the ends of the world.
The Heavens declare God.
The Skies proclaim the work of His hands.
Their voice goes out to all the earth/ their words to the ends of the world.
Romans goes a little farther than this when it tells us
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood FROM WHAT HAS BEEN MADE, so that men are without excuse.” 1:18-19
The basis of godlessness is to ignore God. And at the heart of godlessness is ignoring nature’s clear declaration that there is a God and you will one day have to deal with Him.
The skeptic is godless, because he/she denies God’s involvement in creation.