How Can I Be Confident God Exists? (Chantilly Sermon)
Psalm 14:1 CSB - The fool says in his heart, “There’s no God.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds.
1 Peter 3:15 CSB - in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
1. Has God revealed Himself so everyone can know He exists?
Romans 1:18-21 CSB - For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:22-25 CSB - Claiming to be wise, they became fools… 24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
John 3:19 CSB - The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
Question: If there is no God, how can you explain the existence of anything?
Romans 1:20 CSB - [God’s] invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.
2. How do you explain the existence anything?
Romans 1:20 CSB - [God’s] invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.
3. What best explains rationality and personality?
Romans 1:19 CSB - God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
Men became scientific because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a Law-Giver. - C.S. Lewis, Miracles
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its music. - Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Modern humanism is the faith that through science humankind can know the truth and so be free. But, if Darwin’s theory of natural selection is true, this is impossible. The human mind serves evolutionary success, not truth. - John Gray (atheist)
4. What provides the best foundation for morality & ethics?
Romans 2:13-14 CSB - For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. 14 So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law.
John 1:1-4 CSB - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
“I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.” - H. G. Wells
As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. That influence appears to be mounting. - Kenneth Scott Latourette, Yale U historian
5. If there is no God, what reasonably explains the fine-tuning of the universe
Psalm 19:1 CSB - The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.
Romans 1:20 CSB - For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.
6. I believe in God because of Jesus Christ (historical evidence)
Colossians 1:15 CSB - He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God….
Matthew 1:23 CSB - …they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.
John 3:16 CSB - For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus lived
Jesus predicted His death, burial and resurrection
- Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised up.” (Matthew 17:22,23)
Jesus claimed to be God
- Jesus said, But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. (Mark 10:5)
- Jesus said, The one who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9b)
- Jesus said, I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)
Jesus demonstrated God’s power
- God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word.(Hebrews 1:1)
As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. - Kenneth Scott LaTourette
Matthew 28:18 CSB - All authority on heaven and earth has been given to Me….
