Why Should I Believe In God? Series

Why Should I believe in God?

Romans 1:18-32

The external testimony of Creation

The universe has a Beginner (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19:1)

The universe has a Designer (Romans 1:18-20)

The internal testimony of our Conscious

Humans have a knowledge of God (Acts 17:24-28) (Romans 1:28)

Humans have a knowledge of right and wrong (Romans 2:14-15)

Slide

What would you say to someone if they asked you if God Existed?

Being that you are sitting in a church on a Sunday morning, I would imagine that the number would be close to 100%.

In America as a whole, according to a 2007 Newsweek poll, 91% of Americans believe that God exists.

Accessed 4/19/2009 at http://www.christianpost.com/Society/Polls_reports/2007/04/poll-9-of-10-americans-believe-in-god-nearly-half-rejects-evolution-02/index.html

But what would you say if they asked you how you know God existed?

That is a little tougher question to answer.

We can all give our opinion, but to support that opinion in some rational way is harder, especially when we are talking about God since He hasn’t too often made a physical appearance on the scene.

I am sure you have heard it said or perhaps even thought it yourself, “If God would just show Himself, then I would believe in Him.”

But while God may not have made a physical appearance in the last 2000 years, is there any other evidence that points to His existence that can be used to help others see that there really is a God?

How do we answer someone’s question

Why in the world Should I believe in God?

Slide

That is what we are going to look at this morning.

We are going to try and

see what God Himself has done to make Himself known to mankind and try and

help people to think about the implications of that evidence

so they might come to recognize the truth that there is a God, so that we can eventually help them see the truth that Jesus is God in the flesh and come to trust in Him.

We are going to begin in Romans 1:18-32 (p. 796)

Slide

Within this passage, Paul reveals some ways about how God has made himself known as he talks about God’s anger toward the things people do who turn away from Him and the knowledge of Him.

So, I want to read this passage and look at some specific things that Paul talks about that testify to the existence of God that everyone can see or know.

Let’s begin.

Romans 1:18-32

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 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.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Paul speaks of a couple of things in these verses that testify to the existence of God that God himself has made available to all men.

The first is

The External Testimony of Creation