(All sermon notes are provided entirely from the outline provided by Rice Broocks for the God's Not Dead preaching series. If churches or ministries are interested in using these materials as a resource, visit godsnotdead.org to download content. God's Not Dead books and evangelistic materials are also made available on godsnotdead.org.)
KEY POINTS FROM OUR SERIES: 1) Good and evil are real and only understood in light of God and His Word. This means that without God there really wouldn’t be any evil...It would just be the way things are.
2) When we are touched by tragedy, it makes us long for a world where evil doesn’t exist. The only hope for such a world is found in Christ.
3) Evil will not win.
4) The Bible says, “overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
We have the power through the gospel to see evil vanquished...one heart at a time.
This is why this message of God's Not Dead is so important. Because we can be sure that God exists, we can have real hope that His promises of overcoming evil are true.
1) THE UNIVERSE WAS BEGUN BY GOD.
To know God exists, you can start at the very first sentence in the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
It’s vital to understand that science only recently came to understand that the Universe had an absolute beginning a finite time ago.
From Aristotle to Einstein the consensus was the universe has always existed. If there was no beginning, then the question of who or what began it was not relevant.
It was a Catholic priest and physicist from Belgium, Georges Lemaitrae, that first proposed the theory that is known as the “Big Bang.” The term “Big Bang” was in fact a derogatory term coined to discredit this notion of a beginning.
As Fred Hoyle—scientist and atheist—admitted, “The notion of a beginning is tantamount to allowing a ‘divine foot in the door.”
Noted Bible scholar Dr. Dan Wallace says that though the Bible is not a science book, it is true when it touches on science.
Scientists tell us that at the moment of this beginning, all matter and energy, as well as space and time itself, came into existence. Not only that, but the Universe that resulted contains rationality as well as personality.
Belief in God is logical and rational
When someone claims that faith in God isn’t logical they are simply hurling an insult.
Here is the simple logical progression: (GND pg 70)
• Premise one: Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
• Premise two: The Universe began to exist.
• Conclusion: The Universe has a cause.
The cause must therefore be space-less, time-less, uncaused, rational, and personal.
2) THE UNIVERSE BEGAN WITH HUMAN LIFE IN MIND Let’s look at one of the most startling pieces of evidence for the existence of an Intelligent Mind behind Creation:
THE FINE TUNING OF THE UNIVERSE (pg. 78- 79, GND)
The Universe was “fine-tuned” from the very beginning.
EXAMPLE: Imagine a “Universe Starter Kit”...Imagine it looking like a huge sound board with a bunch of knobs (say 50 knobs) that have to be adjusted within a fantastically small range, but the possibilities are almost infinite. What are the chances of each one of these knobs being set precisely right? (All of them!!!!)
EXAMPLE: It’s like winning the lottery a million times in a row and thinking that you simply have “extremely good luck.”
That’s exactly what the atheists believe, that there is in fact an infinite number of universes. But if you are truly dealing in science and not science fiction, this is the only universe we observe or there is evidence for!
So the Universe was begun by an intelligence beyond human comprehension.
We know enough to know how amazing this God is.
Another way to see this is through what is called the Anthropic principle. (pg. 81, GND)
Scientists admit “our universe” (implying there may be others) is a universe that seems to be designed with human life in mind.
EXAMPLE: The example of going to a hotel room and all of your favorite things are already there. Therefore, someone must have known you were coming...In a similar way, the Universe knew we were coming.
This is so fantastic that atheists can dismiss this with a yawn and say “no big deal...There are an infinite number of possible universes.”
It’s almost comical to hear people gazing at the wonder of the heavens and saying things like “we should thank the universe” for this wonder.
Thank the Universe?
I would no more thank the Universe than I would thank the gift someone gave me on my birthday, or thank the present someone gave me at Christmas. (You thank the giver not the gift).
THERE ARE 3 KEY POINTS THAT WE NEED TO NAIL DOWN:
Summary so far.....
1) The Universe was begun by God.
2) It began with human life in mind.
Now the final point...
3) HE DID IT THROUGH HIS WORD.
Is God’s Word true? This is one of the most important questions of this generation.
So much of western civilization is hanging in the balance. (ie: marriage, civil law, etc.)
The unraveling and rewriting of the moral codes of our society have been the consequence of trying to erase or at least marginalize the impact of the Scripture on our lives.
Many skeptics will concede the existence of a Creator or Designer, but balk at the thought of any kind of clarity as to who or what that God is like.
EXAMPLE: The Bible mini-series (on the History Channel) was popular, but are these stories true?
(Chapter 8 of GND gives the details of why the Bible can be trusted as historically reliable and not a book that was tampered with and changed over the centuries.)
God’s revelation to man in creation is called “General Revelation.”
His communication through Scripture is “Special Revelation.”
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word.” God tells us in Genesis how He did it...He spoke it.
Think about how our world works... Our world is created and shaped by information...LOGOS is the root word for logic.
God communicated to us through Christ.
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:14)
We can know that God’s Word (Christ) is dependable because of His resurrection from the dead. He verified His identity and showed that His words could be trusted.
CONCLUSION:
The same God that spoke in Genesis 1 and brought light out of the darkness is able to bring light into the darkness of our hearts and our world today. (2 Corinthians 4:4, 6)
1) The god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving...
There is a spiritual battle that takes belief in the existence of God beyond a mere mental or intellectual exercise.
You can have all your questions answered and still not believe.
2) They can’t see the light of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. God came down and demonstrated His reality and His character in Christ.
3) The God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. In other words, He is the only One that can make something out of nothing.
His Word can change you into a new creation!
Second City Church- God's Not Dead Sermon Series 2015