I, like a lot of people, decided that we were going to get rid of our land line. It just seemed to be that all it existed for was telemarketers to leave messages. Were using it that much, really. The big drawback of that was they said, Your internet is going to be down for 5, 10 minutes. When this happens, give us a call-call tech support. Well walk you through it, no big deal. So sure enough, a week later the internet goes down-very inopportune time. I call them, and they say, Oh, yeah-5, 10 minutes, well have you back on line, Mr. Williams. Dont worry, no problem. I said, Great. Three and a half hours and four tech people later, Im still trying to figure it out. The fourth tech was just-he was so frustrated. He basically just gave up. He said, I have nothing else to tell you. I have nothing else to show you. Really, you just need to call back and talk to somebody else, because they were having me do the same thing. Every tech guy was saying, Okay, now. Unplug your modem. Re-plug it in. We were just walking through the same steps, and I would say, Listen, Ive done this a dozen times before. It hasnt helped, but, okay; Ill do it again. Wed try to go to different websites and just nothing was coming through. Finally, I talked to the fifth technician. I explained my story, and I could tell right off the bat that this guy had a working understanding of the computers-not just what he was trained to troubleshoot, but overall how a computer operates and works. This guy knew it and you could just tell. Any technician-if you tried to take them off the script-you take them off the track they were trained in, they got confused; and they didnt know what to do. This guy, he had such knowledge; I could tell right off the bat it was going to be different. In five minutes, I was online-just that fast. He didnt just understand what he was trying to spit back out. He understood how everything worked and how it all fit together. This series that were on called, Looking Under the Hood, investigating our Christianity, investigating our faith, is like that. Its like that so that you can go off-script. If youre trying to share your faith, you dont just simply memorize certain answers. If somebody asks you a question thats not on the script and you panic and dont know what to say or do, but that you have an understanding not only of the what of the Bible, but the why and the how and are able to share that with other people... Weve been on this series for three weeks now, and weve got quite a while to go. Were definitely going up through Easter and maybe beyond. Were going to cover a lot of ground. In this next couple weeks, were talking about, God, are you there? and understanding how God has revealed Himself to us. Could it be like Jim Carey in that movie that God has shown signs to us that we sometimes ignore or dont pay attention to, that He is there? Its an interesting study if you ever want to do a cultural study or sociological study to look at other civilizations from civilized society to tribal society. You will see within those societies a desire or a need to worship someone or something higher than themselves. Maybe they have ancestor worship. Maybe they worship certain animals or idols or gods; but in that society-in that people group-there will be an acknowledgement that someone or something beyond their own selves must exist. In the Book of Acts 17 in Athens, Paul is walking around. With the Athenians, that was like the intellectual hotbed of the day-the epicurean and the stoic philosophers and all these different groups of people did nothing but talk about the latest ideas; so when Paul comes on the scene they think hes just an idol babbler. Thats what they call him, a babbler. In fact it was the word bird seed picker. They thought Paul just really didnt know what he was talking about. He was like a bird. He picks up a seed and flies it to another area and drops it off, But you know what, well listen to him. That was their TV; that was their internet; that was their movies; that was their entertainment-to just talk about new stuff. So Paul comes on the scene, and he examines the statues. He examines the art and the idols, the poets and the philosophers. Then he uses those things to communicate the Gospel. He says, You have an idol to an unknown god. What you worship is unknown I now proclaim to you, and he then began to teach them about God. He said how God in His sovereignty established every people group and every nation. He said, He did this so that we might seek Him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us, Paul said. Paul says that God put within man this innate desire to know Him and to find Him, to seek after Him. One of my favorite methods of entertaining the children when they were growing up was hide and seek. Did you play that with your children too? It was just a game that you knew could really occupy them for a while. In hide and go seek, if youre a good seeker, you learn not just to look with your eyes but to listen with your ears. Youre looking for clues. Is that blanket moving? Do I hear a snicker? Do I see something ajar that shouldnt be ajar? So you are approaching that game with your antennas up. Youre looking. As we go through life, there are certain clues that God leaves us. Sometimes we are oblivious to them; were not looking for [them]; were not listening with our ears; were not searching with our eyes. You know how it is if you are the one who is hiding? Sometimes you want to be found because maybe youre getting claustrophobic because youve been in the same spot for too long, or youre just tired. Youre all cramped up, so youll cough or youll do something to be found because you want the game to end. God is a God who is not hidden from us. God wants to be found, but He also wants us to seek. So no matter what evidences we talk about today-or what proofs we talk about today, ultimately it comes down to a matter of faith; and thats the way God created the world. Thats the way He designed the world. He wants you and me to be a person of faith. The full reasoning-the full rationale for that-maybe well not know until we get to the other side; but God makes it abundantly clear in His Word that He wants you and me to be a people of faith. Why doesnt God just come down and stop traffic in the middle of a busy street and say, ‘Here I am? Well, God did come on this planet at one time, He did live among us for a period of years; taught among us as no man had ever taught; did works that no man has ever done; and there were still those who questioned Him. So were going to be talking about several evidences or proofs for Gods existence. Some of these were not going to spend a lot of time on because were going to come back to them, possibly next week or even down the road. Well talk about science. But Im going to give you the big $10 word for some of these proofs because one thing I notice on your surveys-we have surveys for classes-I dont know where mine is, but apologetics has popped up as a subject matter you want to learn about. I thought Id just give you the big word so you can do some studying on it on your own, look it up on your own and study some of the arguments for yourselves. Whats really important is not the philosophical word but its understanding the concept behind that word thats important. Were going to follow Paul as he uses these arguments and as he shares truth with people who need to know and see what we can learn from Paul. The first argument were going to talk briefly about is the cosmological argument. That is found it the Book of Colossians 1. Colossians 1, he is speaking to the church, and he is letting us know who Jesus is-that He is not a created being; that He is not a creature; that He is in fact an agent of creation; that He is with God in the beginning. He says in Verse 16 (page 1165 of pew Bibles), For by Him all things were created: things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. So hes speaking in the cosmological argument about there must be a first cause. Aristotle talked about the first mover. Theologians, like Thomas Aquinas, in the Middle Ages talked about the Uncaused Cause. There must be-if everything is cause and effect-there must be in our world a first cause, a prime mover-somebody who put it into motion. I guess the most common illustration is dominos. If you lined up dominos end to end, every domino falls because its hit by the domino in front of it; so if you trace that string of dominos back, there must be someone along the way who tripped that first domino-somebody who started that in motion. Even if youre the Big Bang theorist… The Big Bang talks about there was nothing but matter, and then all of the sudden, this burst of energy, and theres the world. Where did that come from? How did the explosion happen? Who was the first mover-if you trace every cause and effect back, somewhere there must be a first cause; and that first cause is God. Now none of these proofs stand on their own as a deductive proof that totally convinces us of the existence of God; but as we look at inductive proof, as we look at one argument after another argument after another, together collectively they make a compelling case for the existence of God. The second argument is called the teleological argument. It comes from the word that has to do with design and purpose, and we find that in the Book of Romans 1 (page 1112 of pew Bibles). Paul is writing and he says in Verse 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, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the Creation of the world. Gods 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. Turn also to the Book of Psalms 19:1 (page 541 of pew Bibles). The Heavens declare the glory of God… The heavens speak. …the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth… So the Psalmist tells us that the Creation speaks of the Creator. Who among us hasnt identified with these words, hasnt looked at a sunrise or a sunset and saw the brilliant colors? Was it Brian that was talking about in our 8 oclock service this morning-I stole his sheet here-the eye can distinguish 1.5 million messages simultaneously? It can see millions of colors. Evolution has yet to come up with any kind of explanation remotely close to figuring out how the human eye came to be and how it works. When we look at that sunrise and that sunset, and we see those brilliant colors, it testifies to the Creator. Have you ever been driving out at night where theres no light pollution or up north and you look at the sky and its clear? It just looks like a salt shaker-that God just poured a salt shaker into the sky, and all of these millions of stars [came about]. Ever been and seen a storm come rolling in? Ill never forget the Grand Canyon. I was standing in the Grand Canyon, and a storm came rolling in. Being able to look at the lightening, hear the thunder and watch the clouds just come rolling in, it just speaks of the majesty of God. But when I see design, I know theres a designer. When I see Mt. Rushmore, I know somebody had to make that. When Im driving around in the wintertime and I see a snowman in the yard, I know there was a designer. I dont think, Oh, theres snow. Its a windy day, so maybe the wind blew the snow and the buttons, the carrot, the coal, the hat and the scarf all together to form this snowman. Yet we are expected to believe that time, chance and the right set of circumstances along with mutation, adaptations, survival of the fittest and all of that-all this works together and somehow from non-life comes life. Somehow from chaos comes order and design. How can there be law without a law-giver? How can there be design without a designer? That's the teleological argument. There is a third argument. Well spend some more time on that one in the days ahead. There is another argument found in the Book of Romans. Its what we call the moral argument. In Romans 2:14-15 (page 1113), Paul is talking here about the fact that Gods laws are written in our heart. Hes talking about people-he calls them Gentiles-who dont have the Bible. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) If we are simply the product of chance, the product of random collisions of atoms and molecules, where does morality come from? Why is it that in the cultures of the world-from civilized societies to tribal societies, there is a basic understanding of right and wrong-that they understand that murder is wrong? Taking what belongs to somebody else is wrong. Who tells us that? Who taught us that? I even watched one time in amazement a documentary on seals. It was a slow day. I long for the day when I have the time to sit down and watch a documentary on seals again. But they showed this seal that had lost her pup in seal birth. She stole the pup of another mother seal. They found her, and they chased her down; and she fell into this crevice in the ice. She was down there with this other mother seals pup. The whole tribe or clan, whatever, a gathering flock of seals-whatever theyre called-are gathering around looking down at this mother who stole this other seals baby pup; and they are barking at her. I dont speak seal, but I think it was like, Shame on you! Whats wrong with you? How could you do this? Look how distraught she is! Nobody was barking louder and longer than the mama. The mama was just giving her a piece of her mind! She was telling her what an awful seal she was. Down below, the mother seal who took the pup was like, Yeah, I know! I suck, and was just feeling terrible about herself; and she should have! Shame on her! Where does this-that even seals… You go in the toddler classroom and watch as toddlers are interacting. One toddler takes a toy from another toddler. Maybe they dont even know how to talk yet, but there will be this look on his or her face. Theyll point to the teacher, the authority figure, and theyll go, Ahh, ahh. ‘A crime, a crime has been committed! How does that baby know that? Does the baby have a set of rules that says, Well, you know if you turn to paragraph 3 of code…? Is that how the baby knows that something wrong has happened, or does the baby innately know something wrong has taken place? I mean there are things in our society that we see or hear that we just have moral outrage, and we go, That is wrong! We know it internally. If we are simply the product of chance, where does that morality come from? Where does that shame when you do or say something that you feel, where does that come from? Why is that a universal thing in mankind? Could it be that we are the creation of a moral God that has a moral law that He has put within our hearts? There is a fourth tool that I want to talk about, and thats called a testimonial tool. Some of you might say, Well, Im not sure if I could explain the teleological argument you had, the cosmological argument or ontological or whatever moral-whatever one youre looking at; but you know one thing that you could-you can tell your story. I want to take a look at the Apostle Paul and see how effectively he shared his story. If youd turn to the Book of Acts, there are numerous places we could look, but were going to look at Acts 22 (page 1103). In Acts 22, Paul is defending himself. He has caused an uproar in the temple by his very presence. His enemies have stirred up the crowd and began telling lies and distortions about Paul. So the disturbance reaches the ears of the Roman soldiers. One thing Rome does not like is disturbance. They want their community to be orderly and peaceful, and the Jews are under Roman control. Any disorder threatens their independence as a nation. Right now they have a lot of freedoms: religious freedom, freedom to govern themselves; but if Israel gets too much out of line-if it can't police itself and Rome has to keep coming down on them, that could be a threat to their very independence. They come on the scene, and they dont really know who Paul is. Theyre not sure why everybodys mad, but he must have really done something wrong for them to be this angry that they want to kill him; so they give Paul an opportunity to share to both Jews and to the Romans why he is in so much hot water. He tells the story in Verse 1, ‘Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense. By the way, we know that word there when he says, Listen to my defense. That's the word apologia, from which we get apologetics-which is the series that were on-the apologetics of defending our faith. When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said: ‘I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I want to stop just for a moment there in Verse 4. Do you see how the word Way is capitalized? It tells you that its being used as a proper noun. What were Christians called before they were called Christians? What did they call themselves? They called themselves the Way. They said, I am a follower. Instead of saying the word Christian-it didnt even exist yet; they would say, We are followers of ‘the Way. Whered they get that from? Well, we talked about it last week in John 14:6. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. So this new religion, this new group that was forming, identified them by that statement, We are the Way. Its not a very politically-correct name to have, is it? It is a very clear indication of who they thought they were or what they thought Jesus had done. He had provided the Way to know God. So Paul is a persecutor of that Way. Pauls desire is not to slow down the spread of Christianity. When it says he persecutes the church, make no mistake about it. He wanted to eradicate the church. The church was contained enough that if he could just stop the spread, if he could go after some of the key preachers, teachers and leaders, Paul envisioned a day when Christianity-the Way-would not even exist on the planet. It would be wiped out, done away with, eradicated-rid the world of this scourge called Christianity that teaches blasphemy that this common criminal that was crucified and died is somehow the Messiah. This group needs to be stopped, and Im going to do it single-handedly if I have to. Thats was Pauls intention. Paul would arrest them; Paul would have them killed. In fact, Paul was the one who orchestrated and oversaw the first martyr of the Christian Church and the stoning of Steven in Acts 7; and everybody knows that. Everybody knows [about] Pauls life before he became a Christian. He says in Verse 5, …‘I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. ‘About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from Heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute Me? ‘Who are You, Lord? I asked ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, who you are persecuting, He replied. Notice Jesus identifies with the church. The Lords in Heaven, but He says to Paul, Youre persecuting Me. To persecute the church was to persecute Him. ‘My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of Him who was speaking to me. ‘What shall I do, Lord? I asked. ‘Get up, the Lord said, and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. ‘My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. So heres Paul. He thinks he sees the truth, and then God blinds him to teach him something, You dont see what you think you see. You and I have friends who think they see the world the way it is. We have friends who think for sure that there is no God, but theyre not seeing the world as it is. Paul becomes literally blind to realize that metaphorically hes also spiritually blind-that he does not see the reality, the very God that hes been seeking to-the very one hes been seeking to persecute-is in fact God. Hes kicking against the goads. The goads were the sharp medal objects you used to keep the oxen straight. Another time is [when] hes retelling his testimony, and Jesus says to Paul, Is it hard to kick against the goads? Youre fighting a battle you cant win. So the oxen would get in line when they realized that if they tried to get out of line, it was going to hit those goads; so it would just plow that field-no questions asked. Paul starts to realize hes fighting a losing battle. Hes fighting against God, and he better come in line or youre going to continue to kick against the goads. So Paul is Mr. Independent. Hes Mr. Ill take on Christianity by myself if I have to, and now hes been reduced to a dependent individual who has to be led around by the hand and told what hes supposed to do. Paul is a humbled man. Then Paul shares that hes been called to the Gentiles, and thats as far as his testimony is going to get because the Jews dont want to hear that. They get upset and the ruckus starts all over again in our story. Every good testimony has what happened before-how God intervened in our life and what has happened since. You know these intellectual arguments are good, and they have a purpose; but you know Im convinced that the most powerful argument is not the objective or intellectual argument. The most powerful argument that you and I have-and when I say the word argue, understand Im not talking about arguing with somebody, but Im talking about a premise that leads to a conclusion, a logical conclusion. The most powerful tool we have is our testimony, to say, Heres what my life was like before God intervened. Heres what He did, and heres my life now. That might be when you came to the Lord, or that might be something thats happening in your life today. But there are people all around us that we work with; people that we carpool with; people that we go to school with; people that we know in our neighborhood or in various clubs that we belong to, organizations; family members who need to hear the story that we have to tell. You might say, Well, Im not verse enough in these arguments to articulate them as I would like to. You know one thing is for sure-you can tell your story because you lived it. You lived it. [Its] one thing they couldnt dispute. They could maybe dispute that Jesus was Lord; they could dispute the Resurrection. They could try to argue those things with Paul, but one thing they could not dispute was that he was an enemy of the church and was now serving the very One that he tried to eradicate. They couldnt deny that. That was a fact. Your story is a powerful thing. What is happening to the testimony in your life? Is your testimony gathering dust? You say, Well, my testimony is not as dramatic as Pauls. I didnt see a bright light or hear a voice from Heaven. But your story is important, and its an ongoing testimony; its an ongoing story. How has God sustained you in the midst of adversity? Theres somebody that needs to know that. How did God bring hope to you when everything around you said your situation was one of despair? How did God bring insight and truth to you when you needed guidance? How did God bring comfort to you when your heart was broken? How did He impart wisdom to you when you didnt know what to do? How did He provide for you when it seemed like there was no provision possible? All of those things are part of your story, and God gave you that blessing-not just so that you would keep it inside to encourage yourself. He wants you to use that story to let people know that He exists and that He cares about our lives-that we are not just the product of time, chance and circumstances falling in line, that we have been made with purpose and design. You can argue with Him all day and try to prove that theres no way that life can come from non-life, intelligence from non-intelligence or design from chaos; but to tell them your story-thats your reality. Thats what happened to you. Something happened to you that needs to be shared. When I was 17 years old, I was not in a good way. I was ready to begin college. I didnt have any idea what I was going to do with my life. I just knew I wasnt happy with myself. Things had not turned out the way I had hoped they would. I was a difficult person to live with because I was kind of unhappy. I remember thinking, Whats this all about? Whats my purpose? and becoming so anguished-such anguish that I asked my boss at the factory that I worked at if I could leave for the day because I just felt so terrible about life. I went out to the store, and I bought a book called, What Happens After You Graduate? It was a Christian book. Here I am-I dont know anything about my future. I certainly am not thinking about the ministry because I dont even know God exists. I sat down on a park bench in Sinnissippi Park in Rockford. I read the book for a while, and then I prayed. I said, God, if You really are there, show Yourself to me. If You really are there, can You do something with my life because Ive messed it up? Im not proud of who I am, and I dont know what to do about it; so if You really exist, could You change me? Could You help me? I didnt see a light; I didnt hear a voice, but Im going to tell you something. I knew somehow I was a new person when I got up from that table. It manifested itself. I treated my loved ones differently. I treated my friends differently. I started making amends to anybody Id harmed or done anything wrong to. I started to have a new desire to read this book, to go to church and hang out with Christian kids. Id never had that desire before. Church was the most boring place in the world. How does the pastor stand it? I would think to myself. How can he do that week after week? How can they listen to these boring sermons and read this boring book? And all of the sudden, it became alive to me. I just couldnt get enough of it. I was just reading it and reading it and reading it. I started going to Bible studies. I did crazy things like I broke up with this beautiful girl because she wasnt a Christian. What am I doing? Whats wrong with me? Well, you know what? I just found my purpose. I just found out that I was created with a design, and I was so excited to find out what that purpose was. I went back to my friends, and I shared my story. I told them my story. You have a story to tell. Im praying that God will give you opportunities this week to tell your story-not just your conversion, but what has happened to you since and whats happening to you now. I want you to know if youre here this morning, and you do not know the Lord, God promised this: In the Book of Jeremiah 29, He said, Then I will be found by you when you seek Me and you find Me. Search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. He is a God who wants to be found. I pray that youll open your heart to Him today. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer this morning? Ive got some good news for you besides just the prayers were about to pray. We have cake today. We are opening our library. Pastor Tim has worked very hard and has been compiling resources. We even have free resources for you to take home in that room, but there is cake and punch; so go down to the end of the hallway, go past the bathrooms, into the childrens church room. Before you get to the youth room, you open that door, and youll just kind of follow the line. Youll see it. There is our library, and thats a resource for you to take advantage of. There are some books and tapes and things you might be interested in listening to and reading. Well grow that resource over time, but stop in and check it out. Take some of the free stuff home with you. Take that cake home with you, so I dont eat it. We have plenty, and its really good too. I had some last night. Its really good. All right, lets pray together: Father, we are so thankful that we can be on this adventure, this journey of knowing You. Were so grateful that we have a God who created us in His image, who put His moral stamp on our hearts. We can see evidence of a law-giver because we see laws in our natural world. We see design, and we see order. We know there must be a first cause, an unmoved mover. Lord, all of these things are important and good; and well study them, and well learn them. Lord, also we never want to underestimate our story, the testimony of how You are at work in our lives-that You are a personal God who loves us and who desires to reveal Yourself to us. I pray this morning if there are any here who have never yielded their life to You, that they would pray a prayer similar to the prayer I prayed. They would say, God, show Yourself to me, and Youll answer that prayer. Thats Your promise. Challenge them today, Lord, to take You up on Your offer. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.