Living Like God Matters Series

Today, we begin a new sermon series entitled, Hello My Name is God. It’s a series designed to focus us on the character of God from the book of Psalms. This morning, I want to help you answer this question: “How Do I Live like God Exists?”

Today’s Scripture

TO THE CHOIRMASTER. OF DAVID.

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

there is none who does good.

The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one.

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers

who eat up my people as they eat bread

and do not call upon the LORD?

There they are in great terror,

for God is with the generation of the righteous.

You would shame the plans of the poor,

but the LORD is his refuge.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad” (Psalm 14:1-7).

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,

which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

and its circuit to the end of them,

and there is nothing hidden from its heat” (Psalm 19:1-6).

This morning, I want to help you answer this question: “How Do I Live like God Exists?” Americans run around with money in their pockets that says, “In God we trust,” but we live our lives as if everything depends on me. According to a 2023 Pew Research Poll, only 4% of US adults are atheists.1 They are mostly men, and they are mostly young men, based on the poll research.

Did you hear about the child whose family was atheist who sat down at the dinner table one night? He asked, “Do you think God knows we don’t believe in Him?” But did you hear about the child whose family was Christian who sat down at the dinner the dinner table one night? He asked, “Do you think God knows we ignore Him all week except for one hour on Sundays?” While atheism is a problem, the bigger problem is practical atheism. Is This You?

For a lot of Americans, God may exist, but there’s no drive to worship God. If there is a god, they are not sure they care.

Tell me if you know someone like this:

• You’ve never had a serious interest in spiritual matters.

• You may have had a really strict religious upbringing, and you have since rejected everything you were taught to believe.

• Life is going so well for you at the moment, you don't even see why you need God at all.

• Life is going so bad with you that you have given up on the idea that there is a God who loves you and cares for you.

• You've come to the conclusion that science explains everything, and there simply is no need

for God and no evidence for God

• You feel it is either difficult or impossible to know whether God exists at all.

• You think this question is a waste of time.2

Knowing that the Bible says, “…whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Sermon Preview

1. Practical Atheists

2. Filtering God Out

How do I live like God exists?

1. Practical Atheists

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

there is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1).

1.1 There Is No God

When you think of a fool, what do you think of? I didn’t ask, “Who do you think of?” I asked, “What do you think of?”

The Bible says the person who lives as if God doesn’t exist is a fool. The statement ‘There is no God’ is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist.3 The statement is more likely for people who live like God doesn’t care more than those who think God doesn’t exist. Again, it’s not that they think God doesn’t exist. It’s that they think He doesn’t care how they live. The people David pictures here are people who may have been in the synagogue or in church but lived like practical atheists. Pay attention to three keywords in verse one: “heart,” “corrupt,” and “deeds.”4