How Do I Know There Is a God?

Welcome to Worshiping the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. Today we're beginning a new series called, How Do I Know? In it, Pastor Robert uses scripture, proven evidence, and personal stories to help us find answers to common questions about faith, the Bible, and how God feels about us.

Well, let's jump in with Pastor Robert now. The title of the series is, How Do I Know? How Do I Know? This week is, How Do I Know There is a God? How Do I Know There is a God? So I want to talk to you like I were just sitting across the table from you, and I want to let you know that what I'm going to tell you is, how do I know? In other words, I'm going to tell you my personal study and my personal experience, and you may have a difference of opinion, but we can disagree agreeably.

So please don't get offended if I have a different belief than you, because I'm not going to get offended if you have a different belief than I have. Let's just say that you and I worked at the same factory, and we weren't able to work for a while because of COVID-19, and then the factory reopens, and we come back together, and we're in the cafeteria in the lunchroom, and there's a chair open where you are at your table, and so I come in, I sit down beside you, across from you, let's say, and I say, man, I'm glad to be back at work. And you say, well, so am I. And I say, well, it wasn't just COVID-19 for me. Now, I'm just making this up as an example, okay? So this didn't happen to me, but I'm just trying to give you an example. And if I said, well, actually, I was out for two years.

And you say, well, what do you mean you were out for two years? And I say, well, I had a disease. It wasn't COVID-19, but it was incurable. I couldn't work. I couldn't even get out of bed eventually. There was a new drug approved by FDA, but our insurance didn't cover it.

They even took up a collection here at work and at my church, and so I was able to do the new drug, and it cured me, and I'm completely cured. Okay, so now that didn't happen. I'm just giving you that as an example. But if you and I were sitting in a cafeteria talking, and I told you that story, listen to me, you wouldn't think that I was trying to cram something down your throat. You wouldn't be mad at me for telling your story. As a matter of fact, you'd rejoice with me that something happened to me, and I found a cure, and I was simply telling you about it. That's the way I feel when I answer the question, how do I know there is a God?

So I'm not at all trying to cram something down your throat. I'm just telling you how I know that there's a God, okay? So here's, and I've arranged the talk in three points to maybe help us to remember them, okay?

So here's number one. There is a correct worldview. There is a correct worldview. Now, if you don't know what a worldview is, it's how you see the world, how you see life, and your worldview should help you with some questions that help you through this life.

It brings comfort to you as a person, to your thinking process, and to your soul. And let me just explain. There's actually only one correct worldview when you define a worldview correctly, and that is Christianity. Now, again, I'm just sharing with you some things for you to think about.

Maybe you never thought about it. But a worldview, a correct worldview must address four issues. And let me tell you what the four issues are, okay? Origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. If you're gonna have a worldview that helps you the way you think and helps your soul to be at ease, it needs to address origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.

Now, let me give you some questions so you remember these, all right? Origin would be, how did I get here? How did I get here?

Every human wants to know that. Meaning would be, why am I here? Why am I on this earth?

Why am I here? Morality would be, how do I define good and evil? How do I define good and evil?

That's morality. And destiny is what happens to me after death. Now, think about it. Every human wants to know these four things. How did I get here? Why am I here?

How do I define good and evil? And what happens to me after death? Okay, there's only one worldview that answers it. No other worldview does.

Evolution does not answer these four. It doesn't tell us what happens after death. It doesn't tell us why we're here.

And even how did I get here? Just think about it. Most people have never even thought of this. Do you realize that evolution is still referred to in science books, listen, as the theory of evolution? And most people don't even know how long it's been a theory.

Would you like to know? 161 years. It's the longest theory that science has ever had. Theory. It's a theory. It began, again, many people don't know this, and yet they say they believe it. It began when Charles Darwin wrote a book called The Origin of Species in 1859. In that book, he uses two entire chapters to doubt his own theory.

Two chapters. One of them, he talks about the human eye. And he said, just thinking about the human eye would disprove my theory when you think about how complex a human eye is. But he also makes a statement similar to this. He says, if solid scientific evidence does not come forth in a reasonable amount of time to prove this theory, then it disproves this theory.

Okay, it's been 161 years. And there is no, now look it up for yourself. Don't just listen to someone else. There is no evidence, none. Listen, this is what I'm gonna say before you discount the sentence, listen to the end of the sentence. There is no evidence that one species has ever mutated to another species. Never. It's what we still call this day the missing link.

It's still missing. 161 years later, with all of our scientific knowledge, and we can't find this one bone, this one fossil that shows one species mutated to another species. Now, within a species, we evolve.

We change. I'm a human. You probably will not believe what I'm about to tell you until you think about it for a moment. But I want you to look at my size, okay? I used to be 20 inches long. I'm telling you the truth.

20 inches. And I used to weigh about eight pounds. Now I'm six foot two, and I weigh some pounds.

I'm sorry if that didn't come out the exact number, but I'm not gonna say it again. All right, so the point is I have changed. That's all the word evolved means. I have evolved. But no species has ever evolved from one species to another.

Never. Here's what evolution tells us, too. We are time, matter, and chance. Time, matter, and chance. In other words, we are only metaphysical. We don't know what happens after that. We're only metaphysical.

Here's the problem with that. If you're only matter, then why do you react when you hear that someone passed away from COVID-19? Why do you feel sad? Because you're not just matter. You're a soul. You have a soul. You have feelings. You have emotions. You have thoughts. You're a person.

You have a soul. Another thing that's difficult is morality. How do I define good and evil? Many people say, well, morality is subjective. In other words, each person decides what's right for him or her. That's horrible.

That is horrible. And many Christians will even, they've been sucked in by this. They say, well, each person should decide what's right for him or her. No, I can disprove that in an instant with one question. Do you lock your doors at night? You know why? Because you're afraid of subjective morality. In other words, someone might not believe it's wrong to enter your home and shoot you. And it is wrong. Murder is always wrong. Always.

Always. So you have to understand there is a correct worldview. Okay? So that's point one. So here's point two. Now, before I give it to you, let me say this. Atheism, by definition, I'll explain it to you in a moment, says, makes the statement, there is no God. Those four words.

There is no God. Okay. So just hang on.

Just stay with me. Okay? Here's my point two.

Okay? There is no atheist. It is scientifically impossible to be an atheist. And I can prove it to you.

And even if you might have a different opinion, you probably will still have no answer for this. I promise you. Because I'm gonna do, I'm gonna use science.

Okay? The word science means knowledge. That's what it means. The definition of science, I actually wrote it down from Webster's dictionary, is knowledge about our study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation.

So in other words, the only way, if it's science, you have done a study, and you have based your knowledge on facts and experiments. Okay? So let's talk about this no God. That is what the word atheist means. Now, let me just say, they've changed the definition now. They've changed it because they realize that it's impossible to be an atheist. Again, look at the original word. Atheism, or athe, theos, comes from the Greek word God. A is an antonym, which means opposite, or not, or no. It literally, the word literally means no God.

No God. That's what it means. So you can't go changing the definition now, or you could create a new word. If you wanna come up with a new word to say, I don't believe there is a God, then come up with a new word. But if you wanna use the word atheist, scientifically, there's no atheist.

Because you can't definitively say there is no God and I'll prove it to you. In order for you to say that something exists, you have to have done a study, you have to have the facts to back it up. But in order to say something doesn't exist, you'd have to have all knowledge. You'd have to know everything to say that this doesn't exist. You have to know everything.

Let me give you a second. If you said to me, there is no city called Paris, Texas, I would say to you, show me your study. Show me how you came to that knowledge, what facts you based that on, what experiments you'd had.

Otherwise, it's not scientific, it's just your opinion. If you say there is no Paris, Texas, then I'd say, have you been to every city in Texas? And if you haven't been to every city in Texas or studied every city, then you can't definitively say there is no city named Paris, Texas.

I can say there is, by the way, because I've been there. And by the way, it's nothing like Paris, France. But it's a nice city. If you're watching from Paris, Texas, hey, it's a nice city. I grew up in East Texas, so I know there's a Paris, Texas because we beat them in football.

Just wanted you to know we beat them in football. But there is a Paris, Texas. But you can't say there's not a Paris, Texas unless you've done a study and you have facts and you've been to every or you've studied every city in Texas.

You see what I'm saying? So in the very same way, you can't say there is no God if you don't have all knowledge. Now let me explain that, okay? How much of all knowledge does the smartest person in the world have? All knowledge. All knowledge.

All history of every culture that exists now and has ever existed. How much do you know? The smart people in the world say that probably the smartest person in the world might possess that they say it's less than 1%. So let's just say it's 1%.

And let's say you're that person. Is it possible in the 99% of all knowledge that you do not possess, is it possible that something exists that you don't know about? Of course. You couldn't answer that question any other way. We're not talking about even probabilities, we're talking about possibilities, but the probability mathematically would be yes as well because it's 99% probability. So is it possible in the 99% of all knowledge you don't possess something exists?

Yes, of course it is. So you can't say definitively it doesn't exist unless you have all knowledge. You cannot say there is no God.

Now what you can say is I don't know if there's a God. That is an agnostic. Now we say agnostic is the way we divide the word, but the G actually goes with gnostic. It comes from a Greek word.

The G is silent. It's gnosticism. It means knowledge.

A again is an antonym and it means not or I don't know. I don't know if there's a God. You can say I don't know if there's a God, but you cannot definitively say there is no God.

And if you do say it, I would think that you don't because you don't have all knowledge, it's 99% that you don't have, even if you're the smartest person, I would say it's foolish to make a statement like that. And the Bible says the same thing. Psalm 14 one, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God, the exact statement of atheism. There is no God. And again, I'm saying if you look at the definition today, they're changing it to a person who doesn't believe in God.

But the reason they've changed it is because they've realized scientifically you can't say there is no God. A few years ago, Debbie and I were on vacation and we were seated beside this couple on the beach and they were right beside us and we got to talking to them. They were a young couple. They were expecting the first child.

She was about eight months pregnant. And they were from Indian descent. Their grandparents or great-grandparents came here from India and just a beautiful, pleasant couple. And we were talking to them, what do you do and where do you live? And of course I told them I was a pastor and so we got to talking. And then when they came around to order, she asked, can you do this without meat? I'm a vegetarian. And so after they left or taken our order, I said to her, do you mind if I ask you a question about being a vegetarian? She said, no, I don't mind at all. I said, well, I don't want to offend you. She said, no, no, no, go ahead.

I said, are you a vegetarian for dietary purposes or religious purposes? And she said, religious. And I said, are you a Hindu? She said, yes, I'm a Hindu. Now you got to remember her husband sat right beside her. She's eight months pregnant and I'm a pastor. This is what she did. She said, I'm a Hindu, but he's an atheist.

Just like he's an atheist. And I don't know, maybe being pregnant, she won't start a fight. I just, guys, 40 years of marriage here talking, I just want you to know pregnant always wins. Just wanted you to know. If an argument starts, pregnant always wins. And normally about that last month, they get mad at you.

Just wanted you to know, guys, they will get mad at you because you did this to her. So I'm just letting you know because I can't figure out any other reason why this woman just say, he's an atheist like that, you know, to a pastor. So she says, he's an atheist. And the guy actually said, well, he said, I wouldn't say I'm an atheist. I'd say I'm an agnostic.

And I thought, well, this is a great chance to find out if the way I share something is offensive because I don't want to offend people. So I told him what I've just told you about atheism and agnosticism. And I said, does that offend you? That I don't believe that you can be an atheist scientifically, but I do believe you can be an agnostic. And he said, no, that doesn't offend me at all because that's actually, I wouldn't say it the exact way you said it, but I will now, he said, because that's a great way to say it.

But he said, that's actually why I changed. Because I realized that I didn't have enough knowledge to say that God didn't exist. So I've now come to the conclusion that I don't know if God exists. And we had a great conversation. So that's point number two.

Here's point number three. There is a God. There is a God. Now you have to remember that I'm telling you how I know there's a God.

Okay? So this is how I know. Now you might take what I just said, you might take the argument that I just used. And hopefully it wasn't argumentative, but you might take the argument that I just used and say, well, okay, pastor, I'm going to turn it around on you. You told me that I couldn't say there is no God because I don't have all knowledge. So I'd like to say to you, how can you say there is a God and you don't have all knowledge either. And you're right. I don't even have less than 1%.

I'm like at 0.0000000001. Okay. I understand that. Okay. But it's a great question.

It is a great question. Again, let me repeat the question. You might say, pastor, you told me that I couldn't say there is no God because I don't have all knowledge.

How can you say there is a God? Okay. So let me take my illustration of a place, which is Paris, Texas, and use another noun, a person. Okay. So a person. Let me just use a person. Okay. What if I said this? There is a person named Thomas Miller.

Okay. Now, Pastor Thomas is seated right here on the front row. Say hi to everybody there. There's Pastor Thomas. You can see Pastor Thomas and Debbie came to hear me today. So it was very sweet of him in a 4,000 seat sanctuary.

It's kind of like when I started preaching at the Highway 80 Rescue Mission. Anyway. All right. But here's the point. What if you said to me there is no person named Thomas Miller? What if you told me that? I would say to you, well, have you met every person in the world? Doesn't that make sense? How can you tell me there is no Thomas Miller unless you've met every person in the world?

You can't. But I can tell you that there is a Thomas Miller because I've met him, I talk with him, and he's my friend. Listen to me carefully. And I can tell you that there is a God because I've met him, I talk with him, and he's my friend. See I don't have to have met everyone in the world to tell you Thomas Miller exists. I just have to have met Thomas Miller. It would be foolish for you to say Thomas Miller doesn't exist as a person unless you've met every person in the world. But it's not foolish for me to tell you Thomas Miller does exist because I have met him and I've talked with him and he's my friend. In the same way, this is what the study shows today, over a billion people in the world today, over a billion, say that they have met God, that they've talked with him and he's their friend. God exists. Now, years ago, I met this guy who told me he was an atheist and I said to him, can we talk about that and still be friends?

And can I give you a different point of view? And he said, yes. He said, but I'd like to keep the conversation on an intelligent level, a scientific level. That was meat in front of my eyes. I said, oh, that's great.

That's what I want to do too. And I shared with him what I shared with you. And we got down to the end and I said to him, so you can't tell me there is no God, but I can tell you there is a God. And he said, I think you're right.

So I guess I'm an agnostic, not an atheist. And I said, okay, so let me just ask you a question. If God does exist, would you like to meet him? And I remember watching, now I'm talking about like, not in the metaphysical, but in the spiritual world, I remember watching his heart turn just like that.

I've seen it a lot because I've led a lot of people to Jesus. And there's a point in the conversation where you can see their heart go, and I saw it. And I'm sitting there talking to him and I said, if God exists, would you like to meet him? And he was silent for about a minute. His eyes filled up with tears. His lips started quivering. His heart went like that. And here's what he said to me.

I'll never forget it. He said, I'd like to meet him right now. I'd like to meet him right now. And I share with him the gospel, how God didn't want robots, so he gave us a free will that each of us could choose, and how he sent his son to die for us on the cross. And I led him to Christ. When I'd go back and visit and see him two or three years later, he had won countless people to Christ. And he'd always tell them, I used to be an atheist until I found out you can't be an atheist scientifically. And he was leading people to Christ one after the other. His whole life changed because he realized there is the possibility of a God.

And if there's the possibility, would you like to know? We want you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. Thanks so much for joining us for the start to this new series. Next time, Pastor Robert is going to talk about how we know God loves us. We hope you have a blessed week.