“Products of Chance?”
5-05-01
Lynn Floyd
New Community Church
A thirteen year old boy came home from school with a low grade on a quiz because he answered a question wrong. The question was, “Where did Earth come from?” His answer was simply, “God created it.” The teacher handed his paper back with a big X mark and wrote, “The correct answer is the big bang.”
Of course we know that the big bang theory suggests that millions of years ago there was an explosion that caused the beginning of life. For years there has been a heated to debate on whether schools should teach evolution only or creation and evolution side by side. Our students are taught in junior high the theory of Big Bang with fervor and intensity and that Creationism is a myth. This fervor only gets worse once students hit college campuses all around the nation.
Why has this always been a heated debate? Why on both sides of the issue do emotions flare up and there is no room for compromise? The reason is because there is much more at stake with this issue. This is more than just about our past (beginnings) but about present and our future as well. Our past determines our future.
With any worldview we must answer this first fundamental question: “How did it all begin?” You see, our origin tells us who we are, why we are here, and how we should treat one another. Our origin determines our destiny.
These two worldviews continually collide. One says there is a creator the other says there is not. For many followers of Christ (like myself) we shy away from this debate. We don’t know all the scientific jargon and so we just run and hide and hope for the best. The church must deal with this because this is a reason many in our culture are not interested in God. Not only is it important to deal with creationism/evolution to be able to engage the culture but it is important for all of us to know and understand that we are not products of chance. There are plenty of people in our world who aren’t atheists and or evolutionists and might hold to some form of religious conviction. Yet they still don’t feel as though they matter and have purpose.
Transition: My purpose today is not to fill you with a great deal of information regarding this debate. But my purpose is to lovingly share why I believe that everyone in here is not a product of chance.
If Darwinism is true (evolution, natural selection), then we have to throw morality out of the window, ethics out the window, law out the window and absolute truth out the window. If Darwinism is true then there is no law, no hope, no meaning. I said a few moments ago that the implications of this worldview goes much further then how the world began.
QUOTE: William Provine of Cornell University said, “Darwinism is not just about mutations and fossils, it is a comprehensive philosophy stating that all of life can be explained by natural causes acting randomly—which implies that there is no need for the Creator. And if God did not create the world,” he notes, “then the entire body of Christian belief collapses.”
When there is no room for the Creator, there is no room for absolute truth. There is no need for life after death, there is no need for hope.
QUOTE: Many in our world today would agree with Harold Kushner when he said, “We are afraid of dying, we cling to life so desperately, not because we enjoy living so much but because we are afraid that this life is all there is. When it is over, it will be truly over. All trace of our existence will disappear. We go to all sorts of extremes to avoid the prospect of disappearing totally after death.” (God is Relevant, p. 29 Luis Palau, )
Transition: And so Darwin’s theories are taught with religious fervor in our schools. Our kids are taught to believe not only in a God-less universe but a meaningless existence. The naturalistic scientist insists that the idea of an intelligent cause has no place in science. Or does it. Has science really proven there is no God? Absolutely not. Here is what science has discovered:
1). Matter is not eternal. (which was once thought)
Matter has not always existed. Which means it had a beginning; the universe began at a finite period of time.
2). There are staggering “coincidences” that make the universe fit for life.
For instance, if the Earth was even slightly closer to the sun, all its water would boil away and life would be impossible.
For instance, the structure of the atom. If the proton was larger and had a tendency to decay (like free neutrons) the very structure of the universe would be impossible.
3). Lab experiments do not prove that life can arise spontaneously by random natural forces. It does prove that life can be created only by an intelligent agent controlling, directing, and manipulating the process.
I want to read to you an excerpt from a book called “Skeptics Answered” by D. James Kennedy. (p.63) (Quote not included in this manuscript)
Transition: Not only does scientific evidence support the rational belief in a Creator but also the evidence in the lives of people who have been “changed” by this Creator.
Many people believe that Christians are dumb and clueless and are missing a part of our personality. We have to keep in mind that some of the greatest thinkers in the world were not only believers in Creationism but followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. C.S. Lewis, Johnathan Edwards, Augustine, A.W. Tozar. These guys weren’t convinced with only their minds but with their hearts.
ILLUSTRATION: Aurelius Augustine spent most of his life battling the bondage to sexual appetite and philosophical pride. When he was 31 the power of God through His word, broke the bondage to sexual lust and living with a concubine. Augustine said this, “You made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless, until it rest in Thee.”
This quote is at the heart of my message tonight. We were made by a loving Creator for a purpose. Our hearts will continually be restless until they rest in Him. People every day are finding this to be true.
ILLUSTRATION: Jane Fonda, actress and wife to millionaire Ted Turner recently gave her life to Jesus Christ. What makes this so intriguing is that for years Ted Turner has been brutally opposed to Christianity. Fonda realized that in the midst of having it all she was missing the most important thing and that is a relationship with Jesus Christ. She knew full well her husband’s stance. But she couldn’t resist the Lord any longer.
She could say as the Psalmist did, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:25-26
God is all we need. And as our Creator he wants us to know that there is a purpose and reason for being. What is that purpose? It’s to be made complete. Are we made complete by becoming millionaires? Are we made complete by building a great church? Are we made complete by having a great family? Meeting the girl/guy of our dreams? No.
Here is how we are made complete: “For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body and you are complete through your union with Christ.” Colossians 2:9-10
We are made complete by coming face to face with the Creator who became like us and embracing Him as the Lord of our lives. Our purpose is to be satisfied in Him.
In February 1980, the U.S. Olympic hockey team slipped its foot into a glass slipper and walked away with a gold medal at Lake Placid, New York. Those collegians had shocked the world by upsetting the powerful Soviet team, and then they grabbed the championship from Finland while the crowd chanted, "U.S.A.!" Before his team’s victory over the Soviet Union which advanced them to the finals, the coach of the U.S. hockey team told his players, "You are born to be a player. You are meant to be here at this time. This is your moment." (Today in the Word, July, 1990, p. 11.)
You and I were born to have purpose. You are meant to be here at this time. This is your moment.
