Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s a matter of faith!

Why do you believe what you believe about what you believe?

Believing in the action of faith (Heb11:1).

That is not fair to give a paraphrase version without a translation version

Believing comes through knowledge

Belief is source of great comfort (2Cor1:3-4)

It is only fair that we start this series on why do I believe in God?

And in this series we will look at Jesus, the bible, the church, pre-denominational Christianity, baptism, the Lord’s supper, the virgin birth, the resurrection and the return of Christ (many call second coming).

Faith, belief in God in necessary in pleasing God (Heb11:6)

(Insert why do you believe in God picture here)

But why do you believe in God and who He is?

That is the thing before us this morning.

Come on you can’t see Him, you can touch him, you can literally hear His voice, but yet you believe, why? - we know it is a matter of faith, but why do we have that faith?

This morning well, a little different than some other messages, we will be looking at

The teleological argument for God

The moral/anthropological argument for God

The general argument for God

The cosmological argument for God

And the esthetical argument for God.

With each of these will define, explain, and give the implications of each.

The Teleological argument

Teleological is different theological (study of God).

Teleological evidence of God is what we are going to briefly look at here.

According to blue letter bible.org

here is a simple definition of the teleological argument

The teleological argument comes from the Greek word telos, meaning “purpose, end, or goal.”

It is an argument from design and purpose.

Everything in the universe has a purpose and everything appears to have been specially designed to fit that purpose.

God is the God of order, not disorder, things happen in order to accomplish the purpose.

It started with creation the order of creation (Gen1:1-27)

(Insert in the beginning God created picture here)

Light, heavens and earth (day 1)

The sky (day 2)

Land, seas, plants, trees (day 3)

Sun, moon and stars (day 4)

Creatures of the sea and of the air (day 5)

Animals, and humans (day 6)

God was there before the beginning and set things in motion so creation could be sustained.

Let me give you a simple example (several commentors use this one, so I choose to use it too)

(Insert pocket watch picture here)

all the parts of a pocket watch are intricate and need to work together for the purpose intended for it to keep time.

Each part had to be placed in the right place at the right time for the watch to fulfill its purpose.

Just think about your body, it was created with many parts to work together to sustain life in you.

So the implication of this is there is a design and a designer, the designer is God who was in the beginning.

The designer being intelligent possessing purpose

Some intelligent design scriptures to consider (Ps19:1-2; Ps139:14; Rom1:19-20)

now look at this with me

and then Paul says this

God makes himself know through creation.

Through his invisible attributes, His eternal power (creative power) and divine nature.

So man is without excuse.

(Transition) this leads us to the next point.

Moral or Anthropological argument

Another name for this is ontological argument, one of morals.

And if there is morals there must be one who gives us the morals, a creator, God.

The definition of this from (BLB): An argument from humanity.

We learn something about God and His existence form the say in which we are made.

Rational, intelligent beings that reflect a creator by intelligent design.

man has always had a need to worship, someone, something, including self even (trying to make ourselves a god)

Humanity cries of the desire to worship (Ps42:2)

(Insert Moral argument for God picture here)

Read the slide then read on.

Even atheists and agnostics cry for justice, which means a sense of morals, and those had to come from somewhere.

Implications of this

Man is moral by nature and that nature had to come from a creator.

If there is no God, there is no right or wrong, there is no morality.

The objection heard most often if God created everything, who created God?

God is not physical in nature but spiritual in nature (Jn4:24)

God operates outside of physical nature and is omnipresent (Jer23:23-24)

(Transition) a similar reason to believe in God is a general argument for the existence of God.

General argument for existence of God

God has made himself known (Rom1:18-21) and man was created to worship.

(Insert born to worship picture here)

Ferrell Jenkins author of introduction to Christian Evidences says: “Men in all the world, and throughout all time, not only believe in deity, but also engage in acts of worship and devotion.

Ibid says “the religious principle is extremely potent in all nations, dominating their thought and history.”

Ibid goes on to say “Everywhere the human heart has a craving for God.

There will be exceptions as individuals, but the exceptions do not invalidate the rule.

The atheist is an exception in every society.”

The implication of the religious instinct

Man’s deepest longing is to be satisfied by someone or something

Scripture says this longing was placed in man by God Himself (Act17:26-27)

(Transition) then there is our next argument, the cosmological argument.

Cosmological argument

In general this is based on the premise that every effect must have a cause.

(Insert First-cause argument picture here)

That everything that exists has a cause

The that universe began to exist

Therefore the universe has a cause, for nothing can spring from nothing.

(Taken from paper by Josh McDowell in his evidence that demand a verdict book and series).

Implication of first-cause argument

Genesis proves, reveals cause and effect (Gen1:1)

God is the creator of all things and operates as such outside of creation, he is the uncaused cause.

(Transition) now there is the esthetical argument for believing in God.

Esthetical argument

This is the argument from aesthetic experience, also known as argument from sublimity.

Defined as “the aesthetic argument for God’s existence proposes that an abundance of beauty and the human capacity to appreciate beauty fits better in a world with God than in a world without God that is driven by mere survivability.”

(Insert beauty exists picture here)

This is the observance of the presence of beauty

This is the response of man to such beauty (appreciation)

So, how did this “beauty” and the response, appreciation to such beauty come about?