New Page 1

We are beginning a new series today that I am calling TOUGH QUESTIONS. Over the next several weeks, we are going to answer some controversial and potentially life-altering questions: DOES GOD EXIST?; WHAT ABOUT HELL?; WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?; HOW COULD GOD ALLOW SUFFERING AND EVIL?; WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN? To some of us, these questions may seem unnecessary since you are already a Christian and you are not planning on going to hell. However, we have a responsibility.

1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. ALWAYS BE PREPARED TO GIVE AN ANSWER TO EVERYONE WHO ASKS YOU TO GIVE THE REASON FOR THE HOPE THAT YOU HAVE. But do this with gentleness and respect

Peter said that if we are going to set apart Christ in our hearts then we need to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks the reason we believe. People go through life never settling serious questions that affect us all in one level or another. Sometimes we are afraid we will appear foolish by asking or show a lack of faith by even questioning, but what happens is we never completely set apart Christ in our hearts as we desire. There remains some little doubt or suspicion. We tell people they should be a Christ follower when we are not “dead certain” ourselves. Let’s ask some TOUGH QUESTIONS.

Today I want to talk about DOES GOD EXIST? Have you ever pondered that? Not out loud, right? How would you answer someone who asked you, “How do you know God exists?”

Two young brothers, Billy and Johnny, were causing all sorts of havoc. They were mean and always into trouble. Their parents didn’t know what to do, so they decided to bring the boys, one at a time, to their pastor and see if he could help. Billy, the younger came first and was taken into the pastor’s office and placed in a very large chair in front of the desk. The pastor folded his arms in front of Billy and stared at the boy. After a few seconds the pastor said, “Where is God?” Billy just sat there intimidated. The pastor leaned forward creating more intimidation and said in a stronger voice, “Where…is…God?” The boy was really getting scared. The pastor moved from behind his desk and stood directly in front of Billy, raised one hand and pointed upward to heaven and shouted, “WHERE…IS…GOD?” Billy jumped out of the chair, ran from the office down the street, and into his house. He raced up the stairs and into his bedroom. “What’s wrong Billy?” his brother asked. “Johnny,” he said. “We’re in BIG trouble this time. God’s missing and they think we took Him.”

Is God missing? Was Billy right? Just watching the evening news any day of the week and seeing what is happening in the world can make a person question God’s existence. Some people do not need the news. Horrible events in their own lives cause them to question the existence of God. DOES GOD EXIST?

Polls show that the vast majority of people believe that God exists. People throughout the entire world believe God exists. If we took a vote on God’s existence, the vote is overwhelmingly that he does exist, but because others vote "yes," should I? Many believe that God is the invention of man. The French philosopher Voltaire, said, “If there were no God, it would be necessary for man to invent one.” A line in the song Dear God, by the secular and even atheistic group XTC says, “Did you make mankind after we made you?” Is God wishful thinking or reality? Did God create man or did man create God?

People have a tendency to believe only in what their five senses tell them. If they could see God, touch God, and hear God speak, they say they would believe in his existence. However, because you cannot perceive God with your senses does not give anyone permission to discount God’s existence.

An elementary school teacher had a Christian student who was very outspoken about his faith. To prove a point, the teacher took this student to the classroom window, pointed to the sky and said, “Look up into the sky. Can you see God up there?” “No.” the student replied. “That’s because there is no God,” smirked the teacher. “Oh.” The student said returning to his desk. The student turned to his classmates and said, “Look at the teacher’s head. Do you see a brain up there?” The classmates said, “No.” “That’s means there is no brain up there!”

There are many real things that we cannot smell, touch, see, taste, or hear. For example, television, radio, and microwaves cannot be touched, tasted, or seen. However, special receivers prove they are real. People have cell phones nowadays. We cannot see, smell, touch, taste, or even hear the words we speak going through the air with our natural senses, but they are real. We cannot see, smell, hear, taste, or touch the sun’s ultraviolet rays, but we know they are real. So, because you cannot see something certainly does not prove its nonexistence. The truth is, people want a God they can control. We control much better what we can see, touch, or taste, smell, or hear. We want a God that we control, not one that is in control.

It is interesting that the Bible proves the existence of God with its first sentence.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH.

Creation is God’s proof of his existence. He goes on offense with a challenge from the first sentence. He sort of says, “If you can create it then you can be God.” God never backs down and challenges with “How else could the heavens and earth exist?” God is not afraid of evolutionists and their theories. In fact, God is the one who sent out the challenge to prove he doesn’t exist. It cannot be done. I want to encourage you. Do not be afraid of the Theory of Evolution. When people project it, encourage them to study it. It will prove God’s existence.

Isaiah 40:26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: WHO CREATED ALL THESE? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, NOT ONE OF THEM IS MISSING.

There is God’s challenge. Isaiah asked, “How can anyone examine the heavens yet question the existence of God?” The moon is 240,000 miles away from the earth, exactly far enough to perfectly affect sea tides, aquatic life, and all life for that matter. If closer, its gravity would pull the water out of the sea unto land. If further, there would be no tides and that huge amount of water would become dead seas. The sun is 93 million miles away, with flames leaping thousands of miles from its surface. If further away, we would all freeze to death. If closer, we would all be roasted meat, the polar ice would melt, and the earth would flood. The Mt. Palomar telescope now views 200 billion stars and a million galaxies in the Big Dipper alone. My point is that if the evolution “big bang” theory was accurate, each planet would have the same gravity pull causing planets and stars to collide, but every planet has its own perfect gravity to allow its exact positioning to move through space at thousands of miles an hour never colliding. Our own earth moves through space at 66,000 miles an hour. We travel safely half a million miles through space every day. Isaiah said, “…not one of them is missing.” Is it by intelligent design, or because of a “big bang”? Does science’s study of stars prove or disprove God’s existence?

Albert Einstein (a world renown genius) said, “Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must feel humble.” [1] Einstein said that science actually proved God’s existence.

Psalms 14:1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

A fool does not study out a thing. People attempting to disprove God’s existence are actually wanting to live a life of vile deeds and moral corruption.

Romans 1:19-20 For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. THEY CAN CLEARLY SEE HIS INVISIBLE QUALITIES - his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.

The Bible says that we can see God by looking at his invisible qualities. We are wired to seek the truth about God. God made us that way. It’s not wrong for your children to question. It’s in their heart, but encourage them to study it out. Do not just listen to a teacher or some professor. There are no excuses if we will study. At first glance, evolution looks accurate, but when examined, it falls apart.

Lee Strobel writes in The Case For Faith, “…what looks at first blush like an airtight scientific case for evolution begins to unravel upon closer examination.” [2]

We can know God exists when we look into the heavens and we know he exists every time we look into the mirror. Evolutionists attempt to say that you and all life evolved from gas that caused bacteria. Look at your body. Your heart is perfectly designed to pump 2,000 gallons of blood a day. Your lungs filter oxygen out of the air you breathe and your entire blood supply is washed thru your lungs once every minute. Your kidneys filter about 180 liters of plasma every day and converts the waste to urine which is removed from the body. The average brain has about 100 billion brain cells that allow you to think, remember, reason, and learn. Your eyes have focusing muscles that move the eyes about 100,000 times a day and contain over 130 million light sensitive cells. Science cannot create an eye or “evolve” one. But then, neither can science evolve a heart, or lungs, or brain, or kidneys or anything else that evolution says evolved. In the beginning God created… They cannot make bacteria evolve into anything but bacteria. They cannot make gas produce life. Even evolutionist Charles Darwin said, “To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” [3] However, Darwin never gave a possibility for the eye other than God.

To me, the primary problem with the evolution theory is the lack of fossil proof. Fossils do not lie and fossils provide an indisputable imbedded picture of what was there. Fossils show us all the way back to the beginning of time. Well, there is no fossil proof of human “evolutionary ancestors.” In other words, bacteria has always been bacteria. Birds have always been birds. Fish have always been fish. Humans have always been humans. There is no evolution of a bird to a human.

The famous statistician George Gallup said, “I could prove God statistically; take the human body alone; the chance of all the functions of the individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity.” [4] In other words, evolution is a monstrosity created by man. Humans did not come from gas created bacteria.

Psalms 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

JOB 12:7-9 But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea INFORM YOU. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?

The signature of God’s hand is upon every part of creation – animals, birds, earth (fossils), fish, etc. Study it, ask, talk and it will teach you that God exists. If evolution is true then why did animals stop evolving and why are there millions of different types of animals? The birds will teach us that God exists. The earth and fish teach us that God exists. By the way, why did bacteria stop evolving?

If a person really wants proof that God exists, it is available. God is not hiding proof from us. Simply look around, but the greatest proof is Jesus Christ.

John 14:9 Jesus answered: Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN ME HAS SEEN THE FATHER. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

If you want the clearest proof that God exists, it is in the person of Jesus Christ.

I want to close with a story that I read about a 5-year old boy named Timmy who asked his mother, “Mommy, what does God look like?” “Well, God is a Spirit and we can’t see him in the same way that we see people,” his mother said. Timmy said, “But if we can’t see him, how do we know what he’s like?” Mom said, “Well, suppose you were blind, would you be able to see Daddy?” Timmy shook his head. “But would you know what Daddy is like?” Timmy thought for a moment, then nodded. “You would know what Daddy is like by the things he says, wouldn’t you?” He nodded again. “And we know what God is like by the things he says in his word. You would know that Daddy loves you, because he would tell you so and do everything he could for you. That’s how we know God loves us. But most of all, God gave us Jesus to take away our sins and to show us what God is really like. And even though you couldn’t see Daddy - if you were blind - you could hear his voice and feel him when he is near. In the same way, through Jesus we can hear God’s voice and feel him near, too. That’s why, even though we can’t see God, we can be very certain what he is like.” Timmy thought and then said, “I know. We don’t see God outside. We see him inside.”

My point is, the answer to the best way to know that God exists is Jesus Christ living inside your heart. We can argue evolution theories. We can talk about the heavens and humanity, but the only way anyone will ever truly know that God exists is by his living inside them. Look inside today. Is he there?

Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

So, how do you answer the TOUGH QUESTION, “DOES GOD EXIST?” Talk about God creating everything with design and intelligence. Challenge people to STUDY the Theory of Evolution. Do not take a person’s word on it. They will find that the theory is a monstrosity. However, the best way to know that God exists is by Jesus being within. He will show them God.

	Reaching people and making them devoted followers of Jesus Christ.