The God Questions, Part 1: “I Want the Truth”

The God Questions, Part 1,                                    Sunday, September 7, 2014

“I Want the Truth”

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.  Acts 17:24-26 (NIV)

 

God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.  Acts 17:27 (NIV)

 

Throughout the Bible we find the world showing up and asking “hard questions”.

The fake and the real.

NPR

An article on NPR’s (National Public Radio’s) website lists 12 common half-truths that many of us have accepted as facts. For instance, various news organizations have pointed out that Subway’s $5 footlong sandwich actually measures 11 inches instead of 12. (Subway has explained that their methods of baking the bread can cause a slight size differential.) Here are a few more half-truths the article explored:

  1. Peanuts are not really nuts (and neither are Cashews or Brazil Nuts). Walnuts, pecans, and chestnuts are real nuts, but peanuts are actually legumes.
  2. Facebook friends are not really your friends!
  3. If the lawyer bills you for an hour, it may not have been a real hour!
  4. A 2×4 is not really 2 inches by 4 inches
  5. The American buffalo is a bison, not a buffalo. It’s part of the Bovidae family, which includes domestic cattle and goats.
  6. koala bear is not a bear; it’s a marsupial.
  7. palm tree is not a tree. Palm trees belong to the monocot family of flowering plants, which also includes grasses and grains.
  8. Swollen glands” are not actually glands; they are a series of lymph nodes.
  9. mountain goat is not really a goat.
  10. Pink is not exactly a color. Physicists claim that pink should really be called “minus green” because “pink” is just the leftovers of white light when you take out the green.

 

Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.  I Kings 10:1-5 (ESV)

 

Matthew 22

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.  Matthew 22:15 (ESV)

Questions about paying taxes

Questions about the resurrection

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  Matthew 22:34-35 (ESV)

Questions about the greatest commandment

Questions about the deity of Christ

And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.  Matthew 22:46 (ESV)

 

Throughout time, men have sought for truth and honesty – for answers

Diogenes

 

Diogenes

 

 

 

Video:  A Few Good Men

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo

 

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,  I Peter 3:15 (NIV)

 

The Big Questions

  1. How do we really know that God is there?
  2. How did we get the Bible?
  3. What about people who never get a chance to hear about Jesus?
  4. Why do so many bad things happen?

 

The Quick Answers

  1. Is God Real? Does He exist.

Answer: 

  1. The Cosmological Argument: unmoved mover.  Causality
  2. Teleological Argument: design points toward a designer
  3. Ontological Argument:
  4. Anthropological Argument:
  5. Ethnological Argument: all humans are aware of the existence of God, therefore God must exist

 

  1. Is the Bible true?
  2. Science
  3. Archeology
  4. Prophecy

 

  1. It’s a HEART thing

 

16 Jesus answered them by saying, My teaching is not My own, but His Who sent Me. 17 If any man desires to do His will (God’s pleasure), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself) whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from Myself and of My own accord and on My own authority.  John 7:16-17 (Amp)

 

Video from the Passion of the Christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJffBsSg1kU

 

 

  1. It’s a HEAD thing

 

Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.  II Timothy 2:15 (Amp)

 

 3.  It’s a LIFE thing

 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1:4-5 (ESV)

 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6 (ESV)

This entry was posted in Sermon Notes. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *