I want to invite you this morning to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11. And this morning, by God's grace and with God's help, we're going to begin a new Sunday morning series. These will be a different style of preaching than I normally do because of the nature of the topic. We'll be dealing with a number of different passages of Scripture rather than expositorily dwelling upon one particular passage. And we're calling this series over the next several weeks, Sunday Morning Apologetics. And I want to try to answer some questions about our faith and help you with some things that will help you in reasoning with friends and neighbors, family members. and try to help you to think through why we believe some of the things that we do believe. This morning, our topic is why I believe in God, why I believe that there is a God. And I want you to understand at the outset this morning that I do believe there is a God, that he is powerful, I believe He is perfect, I believe He is pure, and I believe He is personal. And this morning, it is not my goal to develop all the things about the doctrine of God that we know from the scriptures, but rather to set forward a six-fold thought process of why I personally believe that there is a God. I hope it'll be a help to you and a blessing. Certainly, in the day and age in which we live, we see the interest in atheism and agnosticism is at an all-time high in our country. There are more people now who would claim to be atheists or agnostics than there has ever been in the history of the United States. And you know that our country was founded in the beginning upon some Christian principles, and many of the people who founded this country were themselves Christians. Today, we see a great distancing in our nation from our Christian roots. As such, we encounter more and more often those who claim to be those who believe that there is no God, or at least perhaps the agnostic believes that perhaps there is a God, but that his existence is irrelevant, that even though he does exist, he doesn't really have anything to do with us. And this morning, I wanna talk to you about some things which to me strike at the very core of that belief. Now, let me say at the outset, that there are different kinds of atheists that we will deal with from time to time in our life. There are those atheists who are rather brash and bold in their claims. They can sometimes be rude. They can be in your face and really demanding about trying to have people see it their way. There are also a lot of people who consider themselves to be atheists who are what I would qualify as quiet. They just want to go about their life, they don't really want to have an argument, and they don't want to have a discussion, and yet God has called us to be salt and light in this world. As believers, we want to be careful in our witness that we are not obnoxious or not using fleshly arguments. In other words, we want to be careful not to use things like intimidation. We don't want to use things like threats. We don't want to use things like calling people names. And so we want to be careful about that while at the same time understanding that the scripture is very clear that the fool hath said in his heart that there is no God. And in the scriptural sense, the word fool means someone who is without understanding or someone who willfully chooses to be ignorant of the truth. And God is very clear about that in the scriptures. Now, we know that the Bible is clear about the fact that God exists. And in fact, if God doesn't exist, then this book is not true. And actually what we're doing here is kind of senseless, and I should go and get an honest job. And so you see, there's a lot of things that are built on this belief in God, but I do want you to understand this morning that I do believe in a powerful, personal, pure God. And He loves us and cares enough about us to communicate to us about His existence. There are a number of things that are going on in our nation today which make this type of a message important. One, there's a number of false ideas about God that are swirling around in our culture. And so there are a number of people, and when you talk to them about God and the reason why they don't believe in God, they will set forth what we would call a straw man argument of a God that they have imagined or that they have heard about that is not the God of the Bible. And so they'll set forth something that is not scriptural as a description of God and say, if that's what God is, then I cannot believe that. And so we need to be very clear about who God is and what God is like. And we don't have enough time this morning to get into all the details of that in one brief message. But one of the reasons that we have so much confusion about whether there is a God is because there's confusion about what God is like and who God is. There also is, in our culture, has been for a number of years, a movement towards what is called rationalism. And rationalism is the attempt of man to resolve all things to the point of man's understanding. To say, I have to be able to see it, to submit it to scientific tests. I have to be able to handle it with one of my five senses in order to know that something is true. Rationalism excludes anything that is supernatural and says anything that is supernatural is automatically out of bounds because rationalism only deals in the natural realm. Now, obviously, when we talk about God, if we try to reduce God to that which is natural and take away His supernatural being, then we have changed who God is in our mind. And so, rationalism strikes at this, and a lot of the arguments that are built against God are built on a rationalistic way of thinking which excludes the supernatural. That's important to understand. The third thing that is going on in our culture, which strikes at the idea or the understanding that there is a God, is the idea of postmodernism. And postmodernism is rooted in the doctrine of relativism. That doctrine teaches this, that there actually is no truth. that truth is dependent on circumstances and individuals. It changes from person to person and culture to culture and time period to time period. Postmodernism says there is no absolute truth. Interestingly enough, Postmodernism assertively and dogmatically states that there is no absolute truth, which is something akin to a statement of absolute truth. I hope I didn't lose you there. But postmodernism is really the way of thinking that most people ascribe to in our society today, especially those who are 30 and under, will ascribe to this because this is what is being taught in our places of learning, especially in our college campuses. This is what is being taught as a way of thinking that there is no absolute truth. There's no way of knowing what is actually right and wrong. And even Christians are sometimes affected by postmodern type of thinking because it's so prevalent in the society around us. Now, I've already told you that I believe in God. And in this message, we're going to not try to give a thorough explanation of every single argument because obviously we don't have the time to do that. But what I am going to attempt to do is give you a brief overview today about why I believe that there is a God. Maybe this will give you some food for thought. Maybe this will give you some things to explore for yourself and to think through and reason through in your mind and ask yourself if these are the same reasons why you believe that there is a God or why you should believe that there is a God. Further, in this message today, I hope to demonstrate to you that not only is God real, not only does He exist, but that God has revealed Himself to us in the Word of God. And I trust this morning that this message will be a help to you. And so here in Hebrews chapter 11, verse number six, just as a point of beginning for us to set our feet upon something from the Bible, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number six says this, but without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Now, take note this morning that this issue, why I believe in God, believe is the operative word because this is a matter of faith. This is a matter of something that I believe. This is a matter of something that God asks us to believe. And for someone to experience God, they must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Keep this verse marked in your Bible, perhaps with a slip of paper. We'll be back here at the conclusion of the message and keep that in your mind. And now turn in your Bibles with me, if you would, to the book of Genesis chapter one and verse number one. In Genesis one and verse number one, we find what I believe is the first reason why I believe that there is a God, and that is because of the assumption of scripture. Genesis chapter 1 and verse number 1, the very first verse, the very first book of the Bible says this, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. I said, I believe in God because of the assumption of the scripture. Sometimes believers will go through the word of God looking for the logical proofs which God has given for his existence. You are not going to find such a thing in the Bible. Rather, the Bible assumes that you understand that God is real, that He exists. Right in the very first verse of the Bible, dealing with the issue of creation, God simply says this, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Now, there's a couple of questions which come to our mind. If this is the beginning, how did God get there? And the biblical answer is God always has been and always will be. God exists outside of time and space. He is not restricted by things like beginnings and endings like you and I are because he is God. So one reason that I believe in God is because the Bible assumes that God is real and assumes that you also believe that God is real. The scriptures just repeatedly make statements about the existence of God without necessarily trying to prove that God exists, simply making the statement that God is, like we read in Hebrews 11, 6, that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. And ultimately, this comes down to an issue of faith. There's several possible reasons for the Bible's assumption in this area that I thought of. One, is that the existence of God is so apparent that God really does not need to set forth any proofs for His existence. It's just something that is very apparent to everyone. We'll deal with that a little bit later, that God does exist. Second of all, the existence of God cannot be proved by tests that we can understand, because God is a spirit and He is supernatural. Therefore, to demand, I can only accept the concept of God if you can reduce God to a test tube. If I can somehow observe Him, if I can put Him in a laboratory and do experiments to prove that God exists, if God were able to be reduced in a manner like that, then He would become less than God. because he is supernatural, because he is a spirit, he exists outside of the physical realm, God cannot be subjected to the same tests that we might use, for instance, to determine what the qualities of this pulpit are, what materials it is made of, or what the elements are that are in the air, or some other such physical test that we could use. You cannot subject God to those kind of tests. And so I believe that could be one reason why God does not necessarily give us a proof, but He just assumes that we believe that He is. I think third of all, and more importantly, is what we saw in Hebrews 11, 6, that the existence of God is something that we must choose to accept by faith, rather than by sight. Ultimately, God says, you need to believe that I am, and that I am a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Now, right away, there's a reaction to this argument from someone who's coming from a rational standpoint. And what they say is, that just doesn't make sense. You have to give me some proof if I'm gonna believe in God, because I believe in things that I can see, hear, taste, feel and smell. I want to subject God to some tests and it's not fair for you to say that I have to accept this by faith. Actually, what a person who comes from a rational viewpoint does not often understand is that there are a number of things that they are accepting by faith. Things which cannot be subjected to tests in the same manner that God cannot be subjected to tests. You say, like what? Well, for instance, like their belief that all that really exists is that which is material, and that at the conclusion of this life, we simply cease to exist. There is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no spiritual world. We just live and we die and then we're done. You know, they're accepting that by faith. They're saying they don't actually know what has happened because no one can subject a death experience to a scientific test and determine what happens after someone dies. All we know is that person is gone. There's a separation, their body is here, but obviously they're not with us anymore. But beyond that, we cannot subject anything to a test. But a person from a rational viewpoint says, well, I'd rather accept that than accept that there could be a God. And so we can't really subject God to tests. All of the scripture is built upon the premise that God is, and that He has revealed Himself to man. To understand and believe the Bible, the Word of God, we must start with the premise of the existence of God. There are, by the way, many reasons to accept the Bible as a trustworthy and authoritative source for our information, but that is not the subject of this message today. We'll deal with that in a future message. So not only do I believe in God because of the assumption of Scripture, but second of all, I believe in God If I can get it to work, it's not gonna work. I believe in God because of the design that is seen in nature. And I want you to turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter one and verse number 20. Romans chapter one and verse number 20. Don't worry about the slides, we'll let the fellows figure that out. Romans chapter 1 and verse number 20 says something about the design that is seen in nature and why that should be something that would cause us to believe in God. The apostle Paul is writing about the degeneration of man, how man can spiral down in his understanding of who God is and what God is like. And he's talking about what happens when we become ungrateful and then eventually we begin to distance ourselves from God. And I want you to see in Romans 1 20, what Paul says. He says, for the invisible things of him, who is him in verse 20? God, the invisible. Invisible means there are things we can't see. The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Now, Paul, here in verse 20 of Romans 1, is so clear in saying that there are things that we can see which tell us that there is a God. You can't see that. That picture doesn't show the whole honeybee, but that's a honeybee. And when we look at the world around us, when we look at creation, there are things that we clearly see which point out to us that there must be a designer. I chose a picture of a honeybee because I'm intrigued by these creatures. Most of you know that I have some beehives and I like to get in those beehives. They're the most incredible creatures. I'm just fascinated with them, and when I take the pieces out of the hive and examine them and look at them, I'm just constantly amazed at how God made these creatures. For instance, aerodynamically, a honeybee should not even be able to fly. But miraculously, they somehow managed to fly, and they fly quite well. Did you know that a honeybee could go as far as four to five miles from the hive in search of food to bring that food back to the hive? Now, it is more typical for them to stay within a two-mile range of the hive, but they're just amazing as they fly. How is it that they actually can calculate what it takes in energy for them to ingest to be able to take that into themselves, that nectar, to be able to make it back to the hive and have some surplus to put into the honeycomb for the brood. How is it that they know, for instance, how to take certain parts of the brood that they're raising and choose one and make it into a queen? so that they would raise it from, and you say, what is the difference between queen brood and any other brood? It's just the same brood, and they do something different, and out of it comes a queen. How do they know how to, this time of year, people say, how do they stay warm? They cluster into a group, and they buzz their wings like this all winter long. and they will keep the inside of that hive to a constant temperature, winter, spring, summer, and fall, the inside of that hive will stay at an ideal temperature. How exactly does that happen? Is it reasonable for us to say that happened purely by accident? When we see, for instance, how the planets, the moons, and the stars move within their orbit, is it reasonable for us to say these things aren't colliding and running into each other? They're moving in a perfect symmetry and motion, just like a clock, a very sophisticated clock or timepiece would move. In fact, It's so reliable that we set our clocks by the movement of the planets and the stars. It's so predictable that we know exactly what's going to happen. Is it reasonable to say, this happened all by chance? Further, if I were to say to you, there's a beautiful car sitting in the parking lot, It is red. It has a V10. It'll do 200 miles an hour, leather seats, all the options, a Bluetooth system so that you can listen to whatever you want from your iPhone or your Android or whatever your preference is. You can listen to it on the sound system. The key is in the ignition. Go out and take a look at it. And so you go out to that car, you turn the key, you listen to it rumble, and then I say, now I'm going to tell you something amazing. The most incredible thing happened. Last night there was a collision of molecules here in the parking lot. Someone threw a bunch of junk off of a pickup on their way through the parking lot. Those molecules collided and here you have this beautiful car that miraculously assembled itself and is waiting for you to take it home. And you would say, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. That's silly. Of course, if a car is sitting there, then it was engineered. It was carefully studied and designed. It was carefully built. Have you ever seen how they actually assemble cars in the factory and all of the careful planning that goes into that? We see a car, we don't think, wow, that happened by accident. I mean, unless it was a Chevy or something like that. Just kidding. No, we look at a car and we say there was a designer, there was a builder, that didn't happen by accident, there's some reason to believe that someone who is intelligent made that. When we look at the world, the world is far more intricate, and I could go on and on and on and on today, the world is far more intricate than a simple car And yet today we are told there is no God, all of this happened by accident through the random collision of molecules in eons past, and slowly over time it's all evolved into this that we see today. There are so many questions that are begged by that type of a position that we must ask, Not least of which is where did the molecules come from in the first place? How did that happen? Now, again, I'm not here today to say that very intelligent people who are evolutionists don't have some sort of an explanation for these kinds of things. And you know, there are tests and millions and millions of dollars that are spent to try to demonstrate how the Big Bang might have taken place, but the question that still has not been answered is this, where did the matter come from in the beginning? If God does not exist, if almighty matter is what we are to worship, then where did it come from? Even brilliant men, evolutionists like the physicist Stephen Hawking, recognizes that there is design in the universe. In fact, in 2010, he wrote a book by the title, The Great or The Grand Design. Now, that book is all about how we see design in nature and how that design points to the fact that it all happened by accident and without God. How can someone who is that intelligent then take what he observes as design and come to a conclusion which is so far-fetched as to say that there could not be a designer, all of this happened by accident. I suggest to you that I believe in God because of the design in nature. When I look at the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, it causes me to believe in God. And then third of all, I want you to turn in your Bibles just one page over to Romans chapter two and verse number 15. And I want you to see the third reason why I believe that there is a God, I believe in God because of the innate understanding of man. By the word innate, we mean that which is inside. It's pre-programmed from birth. Romans chapter 2 and verse number 15 says this, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." In other words, God is talking about those who are Gentiles who did not have access to the written law of God, but God says this about them, they have the law of God written in their hearts. There are certain things which are innately understood. There are things that man believes from the time that he is a child, and you have to educate him away from believing those things. You have to teach him that those things are not true, and even still, there will be a part of him which has a leaning towards those understandings. Now, I believe the primary part of this is our belief about God, the fact that there is a God. I believe man naturally knows that he's not right with God, that he needs God. Now, not every man responds to this knowledge by seeking after God. And some people respond to this innate knowledge by distancing themselves from an understanding of God, by trying to come up with a rational explanation for why there couldn't be a God. But right from the beginning, we understand this, there is an innate understanding that all of us have that God is. We may not know who he is. We may not know what he is like, but there is something written in man's heart, which tells him there is a God. You could just look around and study cultures and realize that in all different cultures, all across the world, in all different time periods, men have constantly sought to find a God to worship. Now that God may have been a crocodile. It may have been the sun, it may have been some other animal or some other organism, but men in cultures typically look to worship something above themselves. Because man has this understanding, there has to be more than us. And I'll address that in just a moment. For a person to be an atheist, they must rationalize away their innate understanding that there is a God, which actually is why many people only go to the position of agnosticism. They won't go as far as saying that there isn't a God, but they just say, I don't believe that God is relevant. I don't believe that God is someone that cares about us or has anything to do with us, because in their experience, They found that God is distant, or they haven't been able to reconcile in their mind who God is, so it's more comfortable for them because of their innate understanding to say, well, there probably is a God, but I just don't, I don't experience Him, and I don't think He really has anything to do with our world. By the way, agnosticism is a much more popular position than is atheism. Even avowed atheists though, and I've been witness to this, will often look for a spiritual or supernatural understanding of life when they are faced with deep crises. So while they may say, I don't believe there is a God, when they go through the deep waters of crises and trial, like we all do, oftentimes those same people will look for a spiritual or supernatural understanding. They might say something like this, you know, you're a person who believes in God, maybe you could, Maybe you could say a prayer for me. Maybe you could talk to the guy upstairs for me and they refer to him in that way because they don't really believe in him, but there's a part of them that does believe in him and is hoping against hope that perhaps God could help them in their situation. That is because of the innate understanding of man. Now, turn in your Bibles to Psalm 8 and verse number four. A fourth reason why I believe that there is a God A fourth reason is, I believe in God because of the insufficiency of man. And this is complimentary to the point that we just brought up concerning the innate understanding of man. But one of the reasons that we have an innate understanding of the existence of God is because of our own insufficiencies. In Psalm 8 and 4, the Bible says this, what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him." Now, in the context, it's a rhetorical question. The psalmist is asking this question of God, basically saying, God, man is so puny and so small. What is man that thou art mindful of him? You are God and here is man. Why would you care about man when man is so insufficient, so small, and so insignificant in comparison to who God is. Now clearly, the psalmist is writing from the perspective of one who believes in the God of the Bible. We will agree to that foundation in this particular point that we're bringing up. But when we look as men at our insufficiency, now I know that men like to talk about how powerful we are. And certainly there are things which we marvel at that God has allowed man to do. And I said that on purpose, God has allowed man to do those things. There's certainly things in medical technology and in other sorts of technology that are absolutely astounding and amazing. And we look at that and we say, wow, that is incredible that man could come up with those ideas and could develop those things. When I look at a finely tuned car, to me, that's amazing. That's incredible that somebody had the idea of shooting gas into an enclosed cylinder and to use the explosion of that gas to drive a piston across a number of different cylinders and somehow transfer that energy to the wheels so that you could go somewhere. Now, most of us don't think of that when we get in the car and turn the key, but that's what's happening. But you know, there are a lot of things, even though man has some answers, there are a lot of things that man is insufficient in. You say like, what are you talking about? Well, did you ever stand by the bedside of a sick person and feel utterly helpless to do anything at all? Did you ever hear the doctors say, there is not a thing that we can do for them. There's not a solution that we have. There's not a treatment that can take care of this. This is an area where we are helpless. At that moment, we are reminded of the insufficiency of man. Because man is insufficient to restore life when it is gone. Man is insufficient to create life out of nothing. Man is insufficient to explain and understand some of the most basic processes of life, such as the movement of the parts of the basic cells that make up every piece of matter that is around us. Scientists still don't understand how all those pieces. Now you say, I know when I went to high school, they gave me an explanation, but that explanation does not even touch It's not even a drop in the ocean of the understanding that people are trying to get to, to know why those cells work the way that they do. See, that's the basic building block of life, and yet man can't even explain that. There are places on this earth that are completely unexplored and are a complete mystery to man. You say, oh no, man has explored everything. No, they haven't. You know, when a plane crashes in the ocean, we suddenly realize the limits of our abilities, don't we? We can't get that thing out of there. We can't find out what's going on. As much as we know and can do as man, there remains much more that is beyond our grasp. And because of the insufficiency of man, we are reminded that there must be someone who is more powerful and has more understanding than you and I have together. This causes us then to think there must be a God. There must be one who is superior to us in his knowledge and his power. Fifth of all, I believe in God, And this is last but not least. I believe in God because of the relationship that I have with Him. I said to you at the very beginning of the message that God is a personal God. This is an important distinction when talking about who God is, is to remind people that He is a God who desires to have a relationship with man. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 34. Don't get confused about the picture, I'll explain that in a moment. Some of you are wondering, what in the world? Psalm 34 and verse number 8. We said at the beginning of the message that ultimately a belief in God is a matter of faith. It's a matter of choosing what you will believe. In Psalm 34 and verse number 8, the psalmist writes and says, "'O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.'" Now, we don't base our understanding of truth only on our experience, but there is a reality in which God is a person and you can have a personal relationship experience with him. And the psalmist says this, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. In other words, You can sit and theorize all that you want about whether God exists or does not exist. You can look at it from all the different rational arguments. You can talk to physicists and try to get their explanation of why matter does certain things and doesn't do certain things. And you can try to talk to scientists and get them to explain to you different aspects of life. But ultimately, when it comes to this issue of God, You have to step out on a limb and say, I'm going to take God at his word and taste and see that he is good. The picture that is on the screen is a rambutan. And it is in the same family as the lychee fruit. And if you've ever had a rambutan, then you know what it tastes like. And it's kind of hard to describe. It's good. I like it. Now you might look at it and say, I don't know, that's pretty weird looking. I don't think I'm going to try it." And you don't have to try it, but you would never experience what a rambutan tastes like. It's a tropical fruit. It's not native to this part of the United States, but it's something that you can sometimes find in the store. And I encourage you, when you get the chance at the store, to pick up a rambutan and taste and see that the rambutan is good. and that it's actually pretty tasty. You may or may not like it. That'll be your preference. But I want you to know this. Today, I could give you all the reasons why you should try a rambutan. I could tell you, try to describe to you all the reasons why rambutans are good and why they're good for you and why it should be part of your diet. But the ultimate question comes down to, will you try a rambutan? Ultimately, I believe in God because God is real to me. God is as real to me as any person that is in this auditorium. God is as real to me as you are today. He's a real person. I talked with him this morning and he talked to me from his word. I believe in the existence of God because I have a personal relationship with him. Now you might say, why? I simply can't accept that and I can't believe that. Do you know, it doesn't really matter whether you believe it or accept it or not, it doesn't change the fact that I have a personal relationship with God. And perhaps the reason why you struggle with a relationship with God or the concept of God and His existence is simply because you are trying to distance yourself from God. One of the reasons that men want to distance themselves from a belief in God is because if you believe there is a God, and if you believe that the God that you believe in is the God of the Bible, then there is a certain response that is required to that God. And so it's more comfortable for man to say, I'm going to reject the notion of God Therefore, putting myself in the place of ascendancy, because that's what happens, man becomes the ultimate authority, which then results in, I can do whatever I want to do. You say, is that really why people are atheists? I believe it is. I believe one of the reasons why people reject the knowledge of God is because ultimately they don't want to have to think that they're going to answer to God. By the way, even if you dismiss the idea of God and go about your life as if you're never going to answer to God, God is real and it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the judgment. you will still stand before God. You still will give an answer for what you have done with Jesus Christ. Even if you don't want to acknowledge his authority in your life, the Bible is very clear that the day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so as I think about all the reasons why I believe in God, and perhaps there's some other ones that come to your mind, then I think about what this means in my life. And I want you to turn back to Hebrews chapter 11 in verse number six, where we began the message. Hebrews 11, in verse number 6, I'm going to remind you what it says, but without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Because I believe in God, there are three responses which the Bible teaches, and three responses which I have decided in my life that I'm going to pursue after. One, because I believe in God, I seek God. I seek to know Him. I seek to understand Him as He is revealed in the Scriptures. I believe that He is, and therefore I seek to understand who God is and what God expects out of me. I suggest to you this morning that you could argue from a theistic or deistic position without seeking after the God of the Bible. It would be possible for a person to believe in a God that is not the true God. And so let me urge you today, if you do believe in God, then seek to know Him. Seek to pursue after Him. Second of all, because I believe in God, I submit to Him. because he is God and I am man, because of his all-sufficiency and my insufficiency, because of his omnipotence and my weakness, because of his authority and my low place, I submit to God in my life. Now, I'd like to say that I submit to Him perfectly, because that is what He's worthy of, and that is what He deserves. But of course, that would be saying that I obey God without error, I always keep His law, and you and I both know that is not true. And so there are times in my life when I rise up against the law of God and I choose not to submit to God. I'm thankful that God is a God of mercy and forgiveness, that even when I do not submit to Him, He still reaches out to me in love. Today let me suggest to you that if God actually is who He claims to be, then you should submit to Him. The truth is that there are many people who call themselves Christians who are in fact practical atheists. They live their life as if God does not exist and does not have authority in their life And in effect, they live in a way that is no different than someone who claims that God is not real at all. They might even be offended at someone who says God is not real, but in fact, the way that they live demonstrates that they themselves do not believe in the existence of God. Because I believe in God, I seek Him, I submit to Him, and third of all, I serve Him. Because I believe that God, as the Creator, has given man a purpose. I believe that God has designed you and I, every one of us, for a specific and particular You say, what is that thing? That thing is to give glory and honor and praise to his name. You say, that seems so selfish. That seems so self-centered of God. Wait a second. You're trying to apply things that pertain to man to God. He's God. He's worthy of that attention. He's the creator. He has made us for his glory and his honor. As a believer in God, I choose to serve God. I choose to ask God, what would you have me to do with my life? How would you have me to order the ways of my life? What decisions would you have me to make? Lord, would you teach me from your word what your will is and what you would have me to do? And all of that goes back to my belief in God. Because I believe in God, because I believe in God, I seek him and submit to him and serve him. Now this morning, ultimately my belief in God is an issue of faith. I couldn't prove to you that God exists. And so if you're looking for a laboratory test that says, put God in this test tube and make God do this in response to my request, it's not possible. I couldn't prove God to you in that way. And neither can you, by the way, prove that He doesn't exist. You can't put the non-essence of God in your mind into a test tube and prove without exception that God does not exist. And so we both arrive at an issue of faith. Those who believe in God and those who believe in almighty matter. It is an issue of faith, but today I'm very pleased to tell you that I do believe in God. I'm fully convinced of the truth of God's existence, and I'm also fully convinced of the goodness of His nature. And I suggest to you, according to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse number six, that God is worth knowing, and God has made it possible for you to know Him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Today, Maybe you're wrestling with this thought, is God real? Does God exist? Can I urge you to step out and take God at his word? To seek him and to ask him to reveal himself to you, to show you, to help you to understand who he is and what he is like. Then search the scriptures to find the answers for the questions that are plaguing your mind. Because I believe that if you're seeking God, God in his goodness will lead you to a place of repentance. He'll lead you to a place of understanding the gospel and what Jesus Christ has done for you. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Let's all stand to our feet with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. No one's looking around this morning. The musicians are going to come and play the invitation hymn, Kneel at the Cross. Christ will meet you there. Perhaps this morning God has spoken to your heart. Maybe you need to come this morning and just spend a few moments worshiping God and praising him for who he is. Maybe you need to come this morning and say, you know, pastor, I've got some questions that I'd like to have answered from the scriptures. Could you help me from the word of God? We'd love to have someone take a Bible and answer your questions today about who God is and how you can be right with him. Perhaps you need to come to this place this morning, and maybe there's someone that God has laid on your heart, someone who doesn't believe in God, and you need to ask God to give you an opportunity and the boldness to deal with them and to share with them some of the reasons why you believe in God. I don't know how God has worked in your heart this morning, but I trust that He has worked, and I trust that you'll be sensitive to what He would have you do. Heavenly Father, have your will in your way. I pray that Christ would be lifted up in our response to this message, and I pray that you'd help us to be bold, but gentle and kind witnesses of the grace of God. Thank you, Lord, that you do exist. Thank you that you long to reward those who seek after you with an understanding of who you are, with a sense of your presence. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would reach out to us and encourage us and help us this morning as we seek how we should respond to this message. Have your will in your way in this time of invitation. We pray these things in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.