LIFE’S TOUGHEST QUESTIONS
GENESIS 1:1
1. Illus. of my kid’s questions
• “Why is grass green? Why is the sky blue? Why do ant bites hurt?”
• As they got a little older, “Why is that lady so fat? What’s wrong with that man’s face?”
2. All of us are born with a questioning nature. As children, our questions tend to be frivolous. As we get a little older, our questions become serious. “Is there a God? Why am I here? How can I find true happiness?”
3. The way we answer these questions is very important. Our answers will determine what sort of life we are going to live, whether or not we will be happy, where we will spend eternity. If you find life to be unhappy and unfulfilling, it may very well be because you have answered these fundamental questions incorrectly!
4. Fortunately there is a place to look up the correct answers. That place is the bible, and many of the answers we need are found in the book of Genesis!
5. In our text, Moses makes a fundamental statement about God and the nature of the universe, and in so doing gives us answers to three primary questions that everybody asks at some point in their life.
6. What are these questions, and how does Moses answer them?
QUESTION #1: IS THERE A GOD?
1. If you ask different people, you might get different answers to this question:
• Atheist- “No, God does not exist.”
• Humanist- “No, we are our own God.”
• New Ager- “No, God is just another name for the impersonal force that runs the universe.”
2. If you ask Moses, you get an entirely different answer. “Yes! In the beginning, God!”
3. Illus. of Gherman Titoy
• An early Soviet cosmonaut who orbited the earth.
• Said, “I have circled the earth, and I have looked into the vast regions of space. I can tell you, I did not find God. God does not exist!”
• My suspicion is that comrade Titoy didn’t find God for the same reason the crook doesn’t find a policeman! Moses didn’t seem to have any trouble finding Him! “In the beginning, God…”
4. One of the proofs of the existence of God is the existence of all that He created.
Moses would put it this way. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” (Genesis 1:1)
Paul would put it this way. “”For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…” (Romans 1:20)
5. Just as you can’t have a watch without a watchmaker, or a house without a builder, so you cannot have a creation without a creator! If you want to know if there is a God, all you have to do is look at creation!
6. Is there a God? Yes! “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”
QUESTION #2: IS THERE A PURPOSE FOR MY LIFE?
1. If the atheistic evolutionist is correct, then the answer is no. You know what atheistic evolutionist believe, don’t you? (Summarize) If that is true, then your life is just the result of random chance, and there is no meaning or purpose for your being here. We’re just flashpops in eternity, who came from nothingness, lives a short and meaningless life, and then returns to nothingness!
2. But Moses says that we are not the result of a random chance. Rather, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”, and that includes humankind. Genesis 1: 26-27.
3. If we are designed and created by God, then He must have had a purpose for creating us. There is a reason for my life!
4. Illus. of my dad
• Worked at steel mill, had low seniority, stayed laid off most of time.
• Had served in Korea, so he could go to school and govt. would pay for it and pay him a little extra. Could do that and just make ends meet with wife and three hungry boys.
• One of things he learned was cabinet making. Remember him helping my grandfather make some cabinets for my grandfather’s house.
• I remember him buying the wood and hinges etc.
• Didn’t just go to all that trouble and expense for nothing. He had a purpose: he was making cabinets for my grandfather.
• In the same way, God didn’t go to all the trouble to design and create us for no reason. He had a purpose!
5. What is our purpose? Genesis 1:1 doesn’t spell it out, but the rest of the Bible does. The fundamental purpose for which we are designed is to know God and to serve Him!
6. That fundamental purpose may express itself in a thousand different ways: You can know God and serve Him by being a Christian housewife, a Christian Sunday School teacher, a Christian businessman.
7. However it expresses itself, the bottom line is the same: we are created to know and serve God!
QUESTION #3: WHY AM I NOT HAPPY?
1. A local TV station located in a big city did a “man on the street” survey of 100 people. When asked, “are you truly and genuinely happy,” almost 70% said no! Why are we so unhappy?
2. Think about it. We were designed to know and serve God. Until we are doing that for which we are designed, we will never be fulfilled and complete.
3. Pascal the mathematician put it this way. “There is a god-shaped vacuum in every human heart, and we can never be truly happy until that vacuum is filled by God.”
4. Illus. of puzzle
• As a kid we had little money, so we had to look for inexpensive ways to amuse ourselves.
• One way was to put puzzles together as a family. We had a larger puzzle that we had worked on for weeks, only to find that there was a piece missing right in the middle.
• Looked everywhere, but never did find it. We could never complete that puzzle because there was a missing piece.
• Our lives are like that. There is a piece missing, and that piece is God. Until He is in place we are not complete.
5. We instinctively know that there is an emptiness in our lives, and left on our own we will try to fill it with all sorts of things:
• Possessions
• Booze and drugs
• Meaningless sexual encounters
6. None of those things bring us fulfillment and completion because that empty spot is designed for God. Until He is in the proper place in our lives, we will never be fulfilled and complete.
7. Why aren’t we happy? Because we are not doing that for which our creator designed us, to know and serve God!
CONCLUSION
1. “So God created me for the purpose of knowing Him, and until I do my life will not be complete. But how can I know God?”
2. God became a man 2000 years ago. He lived a sinless life, He was crucified for our sins, and on the third day He rose again. He is alive today, and He wants to come into your life.
3. If you
• Are willing to admit that you are a sinner.
• Willing to turn from your old sinful lifestyle and turn to Jesus, giving Him control of your life.
3. If you want to know God, it can only come through a personal relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.
