"Can you Prove that God Exists?"- Pastor Doug Batchelor

eventually you want to go home and so we're glad to be here with you I remember hearing a story about a second-grade teacher of an art class he told her young students you're now free to draw whatever you want she gave them their paints and and they began to paint and she'd go from one to another and give him a little advice and asked what they were doing she came over to this one boy and he was really going at it he was painting furiously you ever seen a kid when he's into it and it stung kind of his mouth and and she was looking at what he was doing and couldn't make heads or tails out of it and she said what are you painting he said I'm painting God she said well nobody knows what God looks like he's it exactly now they're wills and our message today is talking about a very important subject can you prove that God exists can you prove this is the big question this is one of the most important thing things that people could ever talk about now you may have heard of the Large Hadron Collider the biggest and most expensive scientific experiment in the world is located 300 feet beneath the countryside on the border of Switzerland and France and I've been in that region before it is a 17 mile long tunnel they use the same boring equipment they use for making the tunnel between France and England to bore this tunnel it's an instrument but it come is composed of a tunnel 17 miles in a circle filled with the most powerful electric magnet accelerators that scientists can muster it's operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the aim of it all is they're looking for the mystery of the smallest part of matter that holds everything together they call it named after some of the people who theorized it Higgs Boston its nickname is who knows the god particle they built this multibillion-dollar instrument to discover the god particle well they conducted a number of experiments between 2005 and 2007 teen and they say they believe that they found it with 99% accuracy they believe they've discovered the smallest subatomic particle that allows all other particles in the universe to bond together and they say if it wasn't for that particle nothing would exist and therefore they call it the god particle man searching for God in the smallest matter but is there a God now we're in church so in a sort of a rhetorical question here do we believe there's a god if so why how do you prove it you know that's an important question today because it seems like if you can believe the surveys there's a growing number of people who do not believe in God the American religious identification survey found in 1990 86 percent of American adults identified as Christians compared with only 76 percent in 2008 and that number seems to be declining Pew Research Center they did 2014 religious landscape study they found that 3.1 percent of Americans say that they're atheists that's up 1.6 percent in a study that they did in 2007 and an additional 4.0 Americans call themselves agnostic agnostics up from 2.4 in 2007 so it seems like atheism and agnosticism is rising and the number of people who believe in Christianity and God is declining but don't misunderstand still vastly over 90% of people in North America believe in God did you know that so don't let the media some are agnostic some are unsure some don't believe in Christianity but as far as believing in God about 90 percent still do they don't get discouraged maybe I should define an atheist is someone who believes I'm sorry a person who disbelieves are they lack belief in the existence of god or gods an agnostic on the other hand as a person who claims neither faith or a disbelief in God it means you know they don't know without knowledge agnostics a theist is against Pheo theists believing in God now some of you have maybe seen some of the very beautifully produced BBC nature programs by David Attenborough and because he often talks about evolution some assumed he was an atheist but when asked if he was an atheist he said no of course not and they said well you know all that you said about nature and evolution is you saying you believe in God he said well I'm just saying I it would be foolish for me to say because he said the universe is so big and I'm paraphrasing the universe is so big its millions of light years across what we see is just so small and we've learned so much in recent years for us to say we know there is no God with the little perspective of the universe that we have now is like an int on top of a termite hill saying I now understand the universe which I thought was a humble and appropriate response so could be why the Bible says it's the fool who says there is no God with some certainty at least we should say well we don't know or I may not know or at least admit you don't believe or say I don't want to believe but it is a growing problem now you may know or may not know the Bible never attempts to prove the existence of God the Bible begins by assuming the existence of God it says in the beginning God and it doesn't take any time to argue that there was a god it's assuming that you will recognize that there is a God so obviously I'm not suggesting that if you meet somebody that doesn't believe in God that you say well you need to because the Bible says so how many of us know people that don't believe in God and they don't believe in the Bible so you're gonna have to have another starting point right you can't just go and say well you should believe in God why well the Bible says so well that's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy so in the next few minutes I'd like to give you about seven reasons that I believe there is a God and I think I've got a picture on the screen you maybe saw a moment ago in England they ran a bunch of ads some atheists and Neyland ransom ads and that said there's probably no God so stop worrying and enjoy your life and Dawkins the famous atheist took a picture with a girlfriend in front of that poster just enjoy life there is no God now that I think is it the foundation of the reason some people don't want to believe in God because if there is a God then maybe there's some morality and some laws and were accountable for the lives that we live so some people are highly motivated to get God out of the equation because it troubles their conscience but if you're dealing with people who do not believe the Bible and there are some sincere people who have been brought up to believe that you know everything just happened by accident there is no God I was one of them I don't know how sincere I was but I really didn't know and I needed answers outside of the Bible seven things one Cosmetology just the way the cosmos and our solar system are all ordered tell us there must be a designer the bible even says if you want to use the bible it says you can look outside the bible to believe in God Psalm 19:1 the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork you can look up and see evidence for God recently Eric Metaxas he wrote a bold article for The Wall Street Journal titled science increasingly makes the case for God and he comes up with about seven different points where in just the natural world around us in the planet in the solar system we see evidence that there must be a design or there'd be no life on Earth first point our planet is it is as exactly the right distance from the Sun so the temperatures on our planet are conductive to life if we were a little closer to the Sun we'd burn there's no life on Mercury it's too hot we would be molten you get too far from the Sun and you're a ball of ice like some of the moons of Jupiter and so we're just precisely the right distance so the oceans don't boil away and the or neither do they all freeze there's a very precise balance we are the perfect distance from our moon and it has the perfect order to create moving tides and circulation of the air to avoid the stagnation of the seas and many plants and animals reproduce based on the lunar orbit if the earth was a little too close to the moon as it swept around the planet we'd have just one continual tidal wave a perpetual tsunami wiping everything out but it's just the right distance where there's a gentle motion of the tides that circulates the oceans and helps create the climate and as I said many species procreate based on where the moons are and Karen and I and the boys were in beliefs we wanted to see the great whale sharks and they said it's the full moon you've got to look for them they come to the surface when the fish are spawning with the full moon they come up so much life in the planet is governed by this dissolute cycle even plants when I live it up in the mountains in the cave some of you read in my book at one time I I took a drug called jimsonweed it's called deadly nightshade and I don't recommend it but I tell you it's a it's a unusual plant in that it doesn't bloom for this son it blooms for the moon which is why they call it nightshade and I remember sealing the spiral flower open for the moon at night and it closes in the day and Cicely it's incredible the delicate balance of the planets have on earth we have the right atmospheric pressure for liquid water on the surface a perfect gravitational equation for water to appear in all of its forms ice gas and liquid plants animals humans all consist mostly of water about two-thirds of the human body is water you'll see why the character characteristics of water are uniquely suited to life water is a perfect universal solvent for cleaning inside and out it allows various chemicals minerals and nutrients to be carried throughout our bodies into the smallest blood vessels and water is just a miracle just think about it water freezes on top it doesn't freeze from the bottom up it freezes from the top down which is so fish can live under it during the cold seasons and if we were again too close to the Sun it would just vaporize and turn to seem it's a perfect balance we have the perfect ingredients the right mounts of hill of heavy elements and organic molecules for life to thrive on the planet Earth is the perfect size for the right amount of gravitational pull what just suppose that you ever seen the old pictures of the lunar landings when the astronauts are on the moon you seen it before you know they're kind of going and they're bouncing like this so I can't do it because I have gravity can you imagine if there wasn't enough gravity here on earth we'd be just need to flow to your jump and you float away and so there has to be the right balance but if you were on Jupiter you'd be flat because you'd be crushed by the gravitational pull so isn't it interesting that all the exploration we've done in our solar system and all we know we have not found any other life I know you watch programs that talk about ET and being captured and there is no evidence that there is a planet that we have found yet that is sending us signals because you is miraculous that our planet was perfectly designed for life where did it get that design life sustains and repairs itself why do our bodies heal our planet seems to heal itself if given an opportunity our planet has the perfect amount of water for both oceans and continents even though 90% of the water on Earth is saltwater God has created in the environment a process of evaporation where it distills the clean water from the salt water rains of fresh water all around the planet I mean all of this is a miracle when you think about it metaxas argues this incredibly rare outlandishly unexpected process given all the factors needed to occur in just the right confluence of circumstances that at least our solar system must have been specifically designed and calibrated to give rise to us otherwise the odds of us coming to be would be so infinitesimally small that it's unreasonable to believe it could have happened by chance and not just that there would be a planet with a piece of life but look at the incredible diversity of life that coexists you start doing the math on that I'm getting ahead of myself because math is one of the reasons to dr. Arno Penzias still alive today Nobel Prize winner for the discovery of microwaves he said astronomy leads us to a unique event a universe which was created out of nothing and delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life in the absence of an absurd improbable accident the observations of modern science seemed to suggest underlying one might say there is a supernatural plan science really tells us that you know I always think it's it's funny if it wasn't so sad when you see a different nature program and they speak as though Mother Nature has a mind look at how Nature has designed this to and then that to happen I'm going what does nature think there's that you're saying that there's something out there that's thinking and planning clearly there's plan involved but they so don't call it God whatever you do don't call it God but obviously I mean just think about how evolution could explain the intricacies of our bodies and how a piece of skin would eventually start through exposure to light turning into an eyeball even Darwin said the eyeball mystifies him he can't find any scenario or scheme where it would develop itself and that's just one of many functions and organs and you know what I've always said is that for me sex is proof of God I usually don't hear pastors say that but I used to believe in evolution and I used to believe that you know one day through some strange process it's never been duplicated single cells appeared and when that cell wanted to start a family somehow it pulled itself into two pieces we're in the scheme of evolution would there ever be the need for two separate genders to decide to get along and cooperate in order to procreate that is so inefficient did you hear what I'm saying I mean if if I could just say I'm gonna start my own family to split you got two ducks on that'd be a lot easier for me to have a go hone around and find somebody else to get along with Doug and if you ask evolution this about that they'll say well you know that's to increase the gene pool how would a single cell know you know I'm gonna have to start reproducing differently so I get better genes I would you think about there's no way I've never heard a good explanation for that for gender but God designed things where there's a cooperative act of love to procreate and ultimately you know you get parents to raise the offspring whether it's man or animal so that was this point number one on cosmology some of them are shorter so cheer up then you've got biology and I just touched on this a little bit abiogenesis or informally the idea of life arising from nonliving matter such as simple organic compounds has never been observed there's not a single solitary no matter what you've heard there is not a single solitary case anywhere in the observable world where we have seen life arising from non-life you cannot take a piece of rock and plant it and get a sunflower plant even a seed you can't make a seed something simple now when they first started teaching this idea of spontaneous generation of the idea to life arrives from non-life they look at a cell and said you know it it looks like a little bit of mush they were looking under primitive telescopes and all they saw was what you see in an egg they saw there's a wall there's a protoplasm there's a nucleus and they said maybe that could happen by itself but now with their super microscopes they look at a cell and this is a cross-section of a simple cell and there there's a virtual city of factories and activity and chemical reactions that are taking place and all these machines that are in there are using machines or biological but they're moving around and they swim and they propel themselves and they talk they have language where they're talking to the other machines saying we need a little more of this no less of that on the cell he's got so much going on the idea that lightning might hit a piece of water and develop one of those is beyond absurd and biology in plants in animals is a miracle that makes it very clear that there was a design involved there had to be a creator and you are composed of billions of those little things that are all talking to each other and do you realize you can have one single fertilized cell the moment after fertilization takes care you got one cell of life do you realize in that one microscopic thing it's saying this is gonna be bill he's gonna have red hair you have green eyes his teeth are gonna be strong his heart is gonna be average he's gonna be roughly this tall and he's gonna be quicker than most he's just all this interesting information and those gonna have freckles and it's all contained in the DNA of one single cell all that information stored yep lightning hit a puddle and made Villa how could you have that it's just impossible there's no example of life coming from non-life anywhere God said let the earth bring forth the living creature cording to its kind cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth each according to their kind and I just talked about bills first cell the first cell of bill and you put that here then you say okay now you got your dog named spot you got its first cell you line it up right next to bill cell and then you've got your fish called bubbles and you take your goldfish that first cell of life first fertilized cell of bubble set you put it here next to Bill in the spot and you start lining up all the different species of animals and when you look at those cells and you realize it's just a simple cell but you know what it's going to become no matter how you mix them up bill is not going to become bubbles you know what I'm saying God made them after their kind do we observe evolution in the world yes micro evolution Darwin saw micro evolution he saw finches on Galapagos that developed their beaks differently so they can eat different kinds of food but they were all finches there is not a single example you can see anywhere in the world of macro evolution where a cat turns into an alligator because they are different kinds there are little cats and there are Lions they're all cats see what I'm saying and so we have not one single example in the world and yet the whole world is being taught I don't believe in conspiracies but if there was a conspiracy this would be it that there are in formation Taliban in certain universities that refused to allow any other view than the view that there is no God and they are brutal on anybody who says but you know the evidence and they try to shut them down when John Adams one of our first president said facts are very stubborn things and you can't get rid of them so easily so biology all life on the planet grows out of existing life in all recorded history there is no case where we observe life suddenly and spontaneously springing from non-life and for those who believe in evolution if that happened once then why with all of our laboratories are we not able to replicate it one time let alone it happening billions of times all over the world we can't make it happen once because God did it there has to be a god then you got philosophy now I'm not a great philosopher but I did listen to a series of 32 tapes on philosophy and I hope that I learned a little bit about it but I'm trying to some of it is so deep that it's just almost mindless but very simply there are things which come into existence premise one to everything that comes into existence is caused to exist by something else it is obvious that nothing can cause itself to come into existence because to do that it would first need to exist to cause itself to come into existence this is what philosophy does all day long all right are you with me still this is so if you exist there is something that caused your existence and you are not what caused your existence though some of you wish you were and you would like to be your own God but you would have to exist first to cause your own existence right and so there no matter how you cut it there is going to be a point at which you say where was the first domino that was pushed that created the run of the knows that you see going all over the world there was an initial cause now whether you're an evolutionist or whether you're a theologian they both agree that there was an initial cause some call it a big bang and they say at all that you see in the universe around you were the last theory I read they'd the changes all the time came from a piece of matter smaller than the head of a pin that exploded but you got to ask that question why did it suddenly choose to explode what caused that little piece of matter what caused it to explode there's got to be an initial creator of that little pin point doesn't matter how small the evolutionist may get to keep shame but it was so small will you give me that where'd it come from and so you you have one of two choices there is an e over an either an ever existing designer and we cannot explain it and there's design and purpose or without a designer everything came from nothing for no reason that's what evolution teaches which is really sad which means there's no purpose so if you're gonna have a purpose if there's any meaning to life you must have an intelligent creator a God at the beginning of it all that's philosophy we know the universe was caused to exist by something outside of it still talking about the philosophy point we see no example in our observable universe of something coming from nothing for the complexity of life and our planet to exist and interact with perfect dependence and symbiotic cycles logic tells us there must be an intelligence behind it all then you've got point number four mathematics now I'll admit I'm a little bit out of my league now because it wasn't my best field going through school I did very well in history but not so good in math but I do remember Isaac Newton who was considered among the greatest mathematicians as well as physicists of the 17th century other physicists sought his help in finding mathematical equations that would help predict the workings of the solar system he found these answers in mathematical laws and he did that in the laws of gravity based on his discovery of calculus all the space missions depend on Isaac Newton's science of calculus to predict how they can orbit these vehicles and use the gravitational pull of a certain amount of mass to then sling them back whether it's a satellite going off like the Voyager 1 and 2 that have now left our solar system they they basically were able to sling themselves using the the force of gravity after orbiting these planets or the lunar missions it returned back to earth all those mathematical equations they gave us great dependability to say this is the law this is how the law works it does not vary it does not alter and I mean for me the deep math is what we call the multiplication table but it still works there seven times seven that's one I still remember because you need it for Bible prophecy there's always 49 do you know it is the same in any language of the world it doesn't matter your culture doesn't matter your religion seven times seven is forty-nine and so there's actually great interest in math as explaining God because math is much deeper than than the multiplication table the argument is that mathematical laws in order to be promptly relied upon must have attributes that indicate an origin in God they are true everywhere that means there are new present they're true always they are eternal they cannot be defied or defeated that means they're omnipotent they're rational they have language characteristics that makes them personal notice what I just said math is omnipresent omnipotent eternal it's omniscient it has a personal relationship it sounds like expresses the mind of God God loves when we explore who he is in math you see numbers in the Bible you got a whole book called numbers but that's not what I'm talking about you can see God uses math uses timing uses dates uses numbers in the Bible in the temple in dimensions and God is a God of math and you see God in his creation in the math look at the math in a flower I mean there's some flowers they will always have the right number of petals and if you find what is it I was the four-leaf clover you say you're gonna you're really in good luck that's actually some kind of a freak but because you can always count on the three leaf clovers marijuana's got five leaves it's always that way don't ask me how I know that but so doesn't maple so if you're from Canada your acquaintance it was both then you've got Albert Einstein said the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible I mean even in the math that God has written eugene winger and nobel-winning mathematician wrote the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the Natural Sciences is something bordering on mysterious and there's no rational explanation for it point number six and can you prove there's a god aside from the Bible the concept I'm sorry my own point number five the concept of good and evil the concept of good and evil you know actually this is the point that many people turn to to say there can't be God this if there was a God why is somebody innocent people suffer if God is all-powerful all-knowing why was to somebody evil in the world and the evil in the world proves there is no God and I'd say no actually evil proves there is a God not that God is evil but the reason you know that there is evil is because God is good how do you know if CS Lewis said how do you know a line is crooked unless you knew what straight was the reason you are even able to identify evil is because there must be a definition for good and what is that definition and the Bible says Jesus said only God is good matter of fact in English do we get the word God from good when you tell a person good morning it used to originally be God morning because God and good Orson Amon synonymous together so in order to protest against evil a person must first have some transcendent idea of what is good people around the world agree that evil must be restrained and punished even atheists agree with that most of them why if it is survival of the fittest then what would it matter is there any right or wrong is there any purpose to life why would a theist teach in a university what good is knowledge they saw it's good to be informed why how do you have any definition of what good and bad is unless there is some moral value unless there's a God you see what I'm saying so all of it is going to eventually come back to there needs to be an original model for morals for right and wrong and that's gonna indicate that there's a god there's a creator I was driving back I think it's the next picture I was driving home from work two days ago and during rush hour and I came upon I had a light a group of geese they were probably a dozen of them that were I pulled out my camera and snapped this he's very busy traffic you can see there was actually three one of them's not in the picture three adult geese were shepherding probably eight or ten baby geese through very busy traffic now at this point you see the light is red the light wasn't red the whole time and yet what do you think the cars did why did the car stop and let these dumb goose across the road doesn't evolution teach survival of the fittest sooner we prove that we with our cars are more intelligent than they are and just you know render them extinct why did everybody wait and I bet some of them were atheists they waited for the goose to cross the road because you know what everybody has sort of a built-in intrinsic understanding there is a self-evident truth of certain things being right and wrong and we all knew intrinsically it would be wrong to hurt those innocent creatures and especially when you saw the parents putting their lives on the line to try and get their flock across the road I just thought to myself this is even further evidence that people know that there must be a God and then you've got now this must be six see my notes folder were the numbers I can't tell historical splash is what I call it you know evolutionists will say yeah the first men kind of we're dragging their knuckles around the world for millions of years and eventually when he started crossing over to where we got a soul you know there are people who say I believe in evolution but I believe in God in the Bible I just think that at some point man and his evolution got where God could inject him with a soul by the way that's what the Catholic Church teaches they accept evolution well when did man become the image of God at what point did his knuckles get high enough off the ground we said now he's like God or was it when he stopped dragging his wife by her hair as they have in the old pictures but you look at history man splashes on the scene about 5,000 years ago ostensibly he goes from the Stone Age to building pyramids simultaneously all around the world you'll find them in Central America you'll find them in Asia and there's even some great structures in the South Pacific and north American Indians and in Siberia you just these massive complicated structures laser-cut rocks engineering mathematics higher learning moving great weights when we were in Jerusalem last week Karen I got a little tour underneath the western wall they showed us some of the original stones that date back to the time of the first temple by Solomon and you can understand why the disciples went to show Jesus the stones they were so massive and there's one stone there it weighs more than a fully loaded 747 with all the tourist baggage one stone how did they move that how did they cut it in perfect dimensions they're like laser-cut we don't have any combination of equipment they can move them today and they've got these the Incas did it in South America man suddenly Springs on the scene of history and he's a genius and somehow man is he evolved 90% more brain than he needs how would that happen and even among the the evolutionists they had meant something called the Cambrian explosion have you heard of that they say that all around the world at a certain time in their scheme of evolution all these complex animals suddenly appeared and I'm quoting from the evolutions it says it's a mystery how they suddenly appeared well I don't think it's such a mystery I think that God is able to create miraculously through Fiat speaking Winston Churchill said men occasionally stumble over the truth but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as though nothing had happened the evidence is there if a person wants to know is there a God and man I think is an example of that he goes from building pyramids to building proton colliders look at how man man's knowledge in history has just floated in the last hundred years smartphones and space stations and all that we're doing that would suggest just pretend for a moment that the stage here is a timeline and you've got this this primitive animal like a polite creature and he goes along you know and he's just he's hitting things with rocks and he's banging things with sticks and he's rubbing sticks together wondering if he'll ever invent fire and he all of a sudden you get here and it goes like that in knowledge it just explodes that's a fact hard to deny that you just see all over the world there's this incredible intelligence that even if you look in geology that's not part of my list it's interesting that the oldest trees they can find date back about the same time this incredible history of man splashes on the scene there's a writing man being able to record his thoughts you and I are able to read the abstract thoughts why do we have consciousness where does consciousness come from even brain surgeons don't understand how exactly our thoughts and consciousness held organically in your body we know that when you lose your brain you users seem to have problems with your consciousness but the way I'm able to communicate abstract thoughts you're all processing right now assuming you're listening to what I'm saying see you laughed sound waves I'm producing going through the air elicited a biological response to you I mean this it's a miracle what happens there has to be a god so and that that is my seventh point is mankind what a piece of work Shakespeare said what a piece of work is man how noble and reason how infinite in faculty in form and moving how Express how admirable in action how like an angel in apprehension how like a god the beauty of the world paragon of animals humans think in the abstract we're able to record and communicate now digitally record were free moral agents we got personalities were virtually unpredictable unlike goldfish and ants people are so unique because the Bible says Genesis 1:26 God said let us make man in our image clearly man is the dominant species on the planet you can see what he's made from the heavens let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the cattle and over all of the earth man has learned more in the last two hundred years we didn't know about microbes and microwaves and radio waves and light waves and there's so much that we've learned to think that just in this one generation God also has made us for relationship which is proof of God and God wants to have a relationship with us jeremiah 31:3 the Lord has appeared to me of old saying yes I have loved you with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you the Bible says we are made for eternity something somewhere inside us why is it all over the world until recently creatures people believe that there's a Supreme Being that made them that they are accountable to that they should worship and I know there's great variations of how these different cultures and nations worship their God but why why is it that man is made with an unconsciousness that there is a Supreme Being and it wasn't until the French Revolution really that atheism became a predominant view virtually all the world believed there was a god because it was logical when you see all the design in the universe all the organization all the interworking all of the the symbiotic relationships that that that should happen by accident and as someone said once it's like saying you're gonna throw a bomb into a box of used steel and you'll get a Rolex it just doesn't happen whenever you see complicated design it indicates there is a supreme designer and God the wisest man who ever lived Solomon believed in God and he said in Ecclesiastes 3:11 he's made everything beautiful in its time and he's put eternity into their hearts yet the world is confused about God Paul was walking through Athens one day where they had all the philosophers and he stood in the midst of the areopagus and he said men of Athens I perceive in all things you're very religious for I was passing through I was considering all the idols that you worship and I found you even at an altar to the unknown God so therefore the one that you worship not knowing not proclaim to you you said there's one out there we don't know let me tell you about that one that you don't know God has made everything beautiful in its time you know this is maybe a subjective observation but I'll never forget an experience and sometimes we believe in God because we have an experience it's not a good argument for me to say I believe in God because I had an experience that does nothing for you but I'm gonna tell you anyway I was flying back into Sacramento I don't remember where I was coming from I just remember specifically I was sitting on the plane I had a window seat which normally I don't want when you're young you want the window seat you get older you want the aisle I want to explain and but I had a window seat and I was doing okay and and I had my own iPad I had earphones in and I was listening to some beautiful splendid music and right about that time we came under the cloud cover to approach Sacramento and it was the Sun was going down but that meant on the horizon the Sun was actually shining up and hitting the bottom of the clouds instead of coming from the top and it did something I can't explain with the colors as the Sun was going down it was one of those sunsets that if I had a camera and if I was outside of the plane I could have gotten some money from National Geographic you know whenever you see those pictures you think where is my camera and I saw this exquisite splendid picture of beauty and I was overwhelmed with a sense of worship and it was the combination probably of what was coming into my eyes and the beautiful music in my ears but I just thought there has to be a god this is so beautiful if you're just a grunting animal dragging around clubbing things to death where do you get your concept for beauty your concept for wanting to worship something outside of yourself that is hard to even comprehend you wonder do animals see beauty do animals look at a sunset they may say wow you know they bark to their friend isn't that beautiful but you know you never forget an experience like that and you say my faith is not based on that my faith is based on the word but for those you're dealing with if you meet people and they say how do you know there's a God if you can't tell them well because of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy which is a great argument itself then there's these other things that you consider there's plenty of evidence out there but you know what some of the best evidence is it's in Jesus I know he is a biblical character but history also records Jesus you will find him recorded in history and our recent tour of Israel our our guide was an expert on Flavius Josephus who quoted that Jesus was a real character who lived in a real time who was crucified now if a person doesn't believe and they're just believing a lie and this the Apostles got together and say hey I'll tell you what let's to create our own religion maybe we can use it to raise money and let's say this guy really rose from the dead and let's say he did all these miracles let's make this whole thing up you know if you get a few people that know that as a conspiracy it doesn't last long somebody leaks somebody caves in I remember a few years ago meeting chuck Colson he was part of the Nixon Watergate scandal he's one of the insiders and there was a conspiracy and they admitted it and Colson who was also an attorney he went to jail for his crime he was converted in jail and he tells how as soon as they realized they all said will stand for the president we're gonna deny everything but as soon as they realized they were going to jail and the Attorney General's began to interview him it didn't take very long for one of them to say I'll turn on all the others if you'll spare me they were so ready to to lie and tell the truth whatever they had to do to save their skin they all ended up turning and confessing said but with the Apostles they never changed their story they were stoned they were beaten they went into strange countries they were tortured they came away from the torture and he kept saying the same thing that Jesus was the son of God even to the point of being beheaded like Paul or crucified like Peter if it was a made-up story all the evidence would say that is the best trick that's ever been pulled in civilization that they could keep it together every one of them put their lives in the line that we were witnesses of these things and that's how John ends the Bible he says I John saw these things are true so if you believe the Bible there's no question but even if you're just gonna look at history Christ said the things that I teach I'll never be forgotten it's gonna go into all the world how did he know that there's an uneducated carpenter it happened didn't it so in Christ the idea that someone would live a perfect sinless life and show so much love that's further evidence that God is a living God and so friends I would like to submit to you that you know I would like to close actually with a scripture the Bible tells us in Psalm 90 if you'd like to turn there with me real quick it's actually sorry some ya know some ninety Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever you have formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are God God is eternal amen friends if you believe that I thought it'd be appropriate for us to sing about it and that famous hymn How Great Thou art invite you to stand as number 86 if you want to use your hymnal the words should also be on the screen we'll sing together [Music] you [Music] [Music] yes [Music] Tuesday [Music] oi my god [Music] say Amen you know it doesn't matter whether you're looking through a microscope or a telescope the mysteries and the wonder of God's creation is mind-boggling amen and you know I remember that we always have visitors I tried to make a case for God during my message and then I realized I told you about Jesus but I didn't ask if there are some here who maybe have never considered you know there may be a God I didn't really feel convicted as I do right now and that would mean that God came to the earth in the form of a man that was Jesus he came to show us what the Father was like he came to give us an example of how to live says we should walk as he walked and then he died to pay the penalty for everything wrong we've ever done that if we accept what he did by choosing by faith he will forgive our past give us a new heart give us power to live in new life and we can be with him through eternity in a world where there is no evil and if you have not made a decision to accept that God to accept Jesus and to invite him into your life you can begin that journey with something as a simple prayer why don't you all bow your heads with me father some of us have done it many times some it may be the first time there may be some watching but we want to say that we believe in God that we believe that you loved us so much that you sent your son into the world that we might not perish but have everlasting life we know that Jesus died he suffered for our sins he took what he did not deserve to give us what we do not deserve he took our death he gives us his eternal life help us by faith accept that I pray that each person here might be transformed by this truth help us to remember that even though we'll soon be leaving the house of God we never leave your presence that you are everywhere that you fill eternity there's no place we can flee from your presence and help us to live in a way that will please and glorify you I pray Lord that if there are some here who are for the first time accepting Jesus is their sacrifice that you'll give them peace in their heart give them the gift of the Holy Spirit reveal yourself to them help them to know that you are real and bless us as a church that we might be faithful to let the world know that God is alive that he is real and that he's coming soon we thank you be with each person what our personal needs our help us to trust you and I pray you'll fill us with your spirit we can be your witnesses we thank you and ask in Christ's name Amen god bless you if you could please be seated give the pastors a chance to get to the doors and meet you have a blessed abbath

Channel: Aaron

Views: 112,655

Rating: 4.7795963 out of 5

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Id: L5jrEM27hG8

Length: 57min 42sec (3462 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 03 2018