How Sharp is Your Sword

Every once in a while I give a sermon. It's not really a series, it's just kind of a theme. It's, How Sharp Is Your Sword? How well can you answer a sort of a type of a sermon? So today, I want to give a sermon. Can you explain why you believe that God exists? How sharp is your sword? Can you explain why you believe that God exists?

I remember when I was a child. I was a little boy, a little younger than my son, Zach. And I just wondered, you know, we're always going to church every week, but how do you know? I mean, you can't actually see God, right? So I'm reasoning this out in my mind. You can't see Him. He doesn't just show up and talk to you. How do you know He exists? And you have all these questions in your mind. If He's this all-powerful God, why doesn't He just show up and introduce Himself? And you learn later, there's a really good reason for that, with the Garden of Eden and leaving and having sin and all those things. But you don't get that when you're a child. You just wonder, how do you know? So I walked up to my mom, and I asked her, Mom, do you ever doubt that God exists? I was so impressed with her when she didn't even hesitate. She answered, No, I have no doubt. And she went on to explain things to me. Who is behind the power, the beauty, the stunning complexity of the world around us? How can a hummingbird hover with its wings flapping so fast, you can barely see them, just so it can drink the nectar from the smallest flower? While the albatross, with its huge wingspan, can fly to the other side of the world, almost 10,000 miles, with barely flapping its wings at all. How did all these things around us come to be? Can you answer that question adequately? You know, Peter encouraged us in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks the reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. And that word defense can oftentimes have a negative connotation, and it can sound like, be ready to be defensive. And that's not actually what the word means in Greek. It doesn't mean be defensive. The word in the Greek is apologia, and it means a verbal defense or speech defense, but it means a reasoned statement or argument, according to Thayer's Dictionary. So the word defense means be ready to explain. So it's not just an answer, and it's not to be defensive, but it means to thoroughly explain. So what Peter was saying was, be ready. Are you ready to thoroughly explain the hope that is in you? Can you do that? So here's our challenge today. The very first verse in the Bible states that God exists and created everything. Can you defend that? Can you apologia thoroughly explain it? Most importantly to me, and maybe not most importantly, but very importantly, if a child asks you, do you ever doubt that God exists? Can you answer, no, I have no doubt, without hesitation, and give a fairly thorough explanation? Well, that's what I want to go through today, and this is by no means the way you have to explain it, and I'll get into more of that at the end. These are just examples of ways you can approach this topic, this answer, to have your defense, your apologia, your thorough explanation of this particular, most fundamental question in all of mankind. Is there a God, and does He actually care about me? Here are some ways that we can explain that God exists, and there by no means not all of the ways that we can explain that God exists. Here are just some. One, fulfilled prophecy. Prophecies that have already taken place, and some of them are so remarkable they're irrefutable. How about history or archaeology?

Historical facts that most of mankind will refute. The Bible says it happened one way, mankind says it never happened, all of a sudden they dig in the dirt, they find out it happened just the way the Bible said. What about simple logic? Can you use just the human mind to find out whether or not God exists? You can.

What about science itself? Science is almost always seen as being in opposition to theology, in opposition to religion, and yet science actually proves that God exists. And then my personal favorite, way to explain that God exists, and I'll get to that at the end. Let's dive into a few of these examples. First of all, let's look at fulfilled prophecy. I'll give you two examples of these, and these are irrefutable. These are amazing, because these prophecies were foretold hundreds of years prior, and then they were actually fulfilled exactly the way the prophecy said it would be fulfilled. The first one I've given to you before, but I'll give to you again, just because I think it's a remarkable example, and that is the prophecy in Daniel 8 about Alexander the Great. You see, Alexander the Great was a Macedonian king, the king of the Greek Empire, and he was getting ready to take over the known world. But it was predicted that a king from Greece would come and take over the known world in the book of Daniel. In fact, it was predicted specifically that he would conquer a current world-ruling empire, the Persian Empire. So, in order for this prophecy to be fulfilled, the Persian Empire had to be in place ruling the world, and it had to be an empire from Greece that took it over. Otherwise, the prophecy doesn't get fulfilled. And all of a sudden, this Alexander the Great starts taking the known world, and he takes the city of Tyre, which is a pretty hard city to take. And people start to pay attention to this Alexander. And all of a sudden, he makes his way down into Judea, and he takes the city of Gaza. Now, a lot of critics say, wait a minute, the book of Daniel was written much later, and it wasn't actually prophecy. It was history written to look like prophecy. In other words, all of these things had already taken place, and then some guy who makes himself out to be Daniel, quote-unquote, wrote a historical account of what actually happened, but called it a prophecy. So really, it's just make-believe. And this is why this story is so remarkable. When Alexander the Great was in the city of Gaza and had wiped it out, he already had quite a coalition army built. He had conquered several nations, or made treaties with several nations, and he took all of their armies and made them his army. And he made their prominent leaders his prominent generals. And he made a promise to his prominent generals that they could take the great city of Jerusalem, and they could take all the spoils. So Alexander the Great makes a promise that Jerusalem will go to his new allies. And all of a sudden, coming in the distance, are these people in white robes. But one of them is dressed in purple and has all kinds of neat ornaments all on him. And it happens to be the priests of God coming from Jerusalem to meet Alexander in Gaza. And they come to him, and he personally goes and greets them. And one of the generals were blown away. Why would you greet these people? We're going to go wipe them out. He has dinner with them, he entertains them, and one of the generals says, do you adore them? In other words, are you in love with them? He says, no, I don't adore them. He said, I saw that man in my dream when I was up conquering Tyre. I fell asleep, and I saw the vision of him coming over that hill in that exact outfit in my dream. And I knew I had to go meet him. So Alexander the Great goes and meets the high priest of the temple of God.

And he talks to them, and he asks them, since he saw him in a dream, he knew that God was God. And he asks the high priest, what can I do for you? And the high priest said, two things. Please allow us to keep our own laws. Let us keep the law of God, let us keep the Sabbath, let us maintain our sacrifices. And release us from paying taxes to you in the seventh year, when it is the release year. If you can do those two things for us, you can have everything. You win. We surrender. He said, absolutely! Now he breaks his word to his prominent generals, and they're pretty ticked, but they don't do anything about it, because after all, he's Alexander the Great. And then the next day, or a day or two later, they go down to Jerusalem, and they read the book of Daniel to Alexander. And this proves that it was written prior to it happening, because they actually read it to him. And this is what Josephus records. This is from Josephus, the Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11, Chapter 8, Sections 4-6. I can't believe I remembered that, because I forgot to write it down. Book 11, Chapter 8, Sections 4-6. I'm just going to read a little excerpt from Section 5. Quote, Why did Alexander the Great grant their desire? Because he was read a prophecy about himself. Later he went down and conquered Egypt, gathered enough strength, and went over and whooped the Persian Empire. And then he did die, and his empire was carved into four separate empires, just like the prophecy in Daniel fulfilled. Now, that's relatively impossible to fulfill. I mean, I'm not sure what the odds are that somebody, hundreds of years before, can predict that a king will come from a specific, no-named nation like Greece. And that nation will become a world-ruling empire and will destroy the current world-ruling empire. And then the king will die, and his nation will be split into four kingdoms. I don't know what the odds of that are happening, but you know human nature. A skeptic can say, ah, he got lucky. All right? Well, this next one, you can't get lucky. This next one is impossible for it to have been fulfilled. And yet, it was fulfilled. Jesus Christ fulfilled at least 61 prophecies in his first coming. That is statistically impossible. And yet, he did it. It is impossible for a human being to fulfill a prophecy that was written between 500 and 1,000 years before, and to fulfill it exactly. Now, it's possible for him to fulfill one and lock out. Born in Bethlehem. Okay, lots of people are born in Bethlehem. Born in Bethlehem and having his hands and feet pierced. Okay, they were in the Roman Empire. Many people were crucified. So if you were born in Bethlehem and you committed a capital crime, you could be born in Bethlehem and have your hands and your feet pierced. It's possible to fulfill exactly a couple of the prophecies, but not 61. In fact, not even eight. It's not even mathematically possible for a human being on his own by random or at chance to fulfill eight separate prophecies exactly.

I'm going to read this article from y-jesus.com. The article is, What Are the Odds? And he says, quote, According to the Hebrew requirements, a prophecy must have 100% rate of accuracy. The true Messiah of Israel must fulfill them all, or else he's not the Messiah. So the question that either vindicates Jesus or makes him culpable for the world's greatest hoax is, Did he fit and fulfill these Old Testament prophecies? End quote. Here are two examples of the prophecies. Micah 5 and verse 2, You, O Bethlehem, if I can't pronounce that, are only a small village in Judah, yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. And that's Micah 5, verse 2, from the New Living Translation. So that's one prophecy that he had to fulfill. He had to have origins from a distant past born in Bethlehem. Another one is found in Isaiah 7, verse 14.

Also, the New Living Translation. The Lord himself will choose sign. Look, the virgin will conceive a child. She will give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel. God with us. That is Isaiah 7, verse 14. Now, it's impossible humanly to prove that there was a virgin birth, but in the Gospel accounts, he did fulfill that. So we're going to take it at its word, and you'll see why in just a moment. So you could see, you know, somebody could fulfill a couple prophecies that were predicted hundreds of years before. But three would be hard. Four, probably impossible. Eight, most certainly impossible for random chance that all of those prophecies would intersect with one human being. What are the odds? Let's read on in this article, quote. When forensic scientists discover a DNA profile match, the odds of having the wrong person is frequently less than one in several billion. Something for deviants to keep in mind. Let me just step out and comment on that for just a second. Okay, so when somebody does a DNA test and they find an exact match, it's not an exact match, but they are certain that it's that one human being and nobody else. Once they get down to one in several billion, because there's only several billion human beings on the Earth. So you get to a certain point when it is a certainty that that person is fulfilled. Wait till you hear the number, the odds of Jesus Christ fulfilling just eight prophecies.

It would seem, reading on in the article, we are in the neighborhood of odds, the number of zeros, in considering a single individual fulfilling these prophecies. Professor of Mathematics Peter Stoner gave 600 students of math a probability problem that would determine the odds for one person fulfilling eight specific prophecies.

This is not the same as flipping a coin eight times in a row and getting heads each time. This is much more complicated than that. First, the students calculated the odds of one person fulfilling all of the conditions of one specific prophecy, such as being betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver. Then, the students did their best to estimate the odds for all of the eight prophecies combined.

Now, they only took eight of the 61 that he fulfilled and calculated the odds on just them. Back to the article. The students calculated the odds against one person fulfilling all eight prophecies are astronomical, one in ten to the 21st power. To illustrate that number, Stoner gave the following example. He said, First, blanket the entire Earth landmass with silver dollars 120 feet high. Second, specially mark one of those dollars and randomly bury it. Third, ask a person to travel the Earth and select the marked dollar while blindfolded from the trillions of other dollars.

People can do some pretty squishy things with numbers, especially with a last name like that. So, it's important to note that Stoner's work was reviewed by the American Scientific Association, which stated, The mathematical analysis is based upon principles of probability which are thoroughly sound. And Professor Stoner has applied these principles in a proper and convincing way. One to the 21st power. In other words, there is no way Jesus Christ could have fulfilled even eight, just eight, of the 61 prophecies. And the 61, there's actually more than 300 references to those 61 prophecies. So, that makes it even more complicated. And 10 to the 21st power, we can't even imagine in our mind.

I mean, I can say, blanket the Earth with 120 feet of silver coins, but I can't actually imagine blanketing the city of San Antonio with 120 feet high worth stack of silver coins. Let alone the entire Earth. I haven't even seen the entire landmass of the Earth. I can't imagine it in my brain. And it is definitely impossible to fulfill. So, prophecies like Jeremiah 23.5, where the Messiah would be from the lineage of King David, and then Zechariah 11.13, where the Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and added to Psalm 22 and verse 16, where his hands and feet would be pierced, and then add Psalm 22.18, where people would cast lots for his clothing, which is recorded in John 19.

And then, in Zechariah 9.9, when the Messiah would appear riding on a donkey, which happened in Matthew 21 and verse 7, or a messenger would be sent to Harold the Messiah in Malachi 3 and verse 1, which happened with John the Baptist in John 1 and verse 26. The eight prophecies that I just mentioned to you, including the first two that I mentioned, were reviewed and written by men at different times and different places about 500 to 1,000 years prior to Jesus Christ being born. There was no opportunity for them to have collusion together with each other, and it was too specific.

Bible scholars tell us that nearly 300 references to the specific 61 prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The odds against one person fulfilling that many prophecies would be beyond all mathematical possibility, and yet he did it. It could never happen no matter how much time was allotted. And that means that there is a very super intelligent being that made all of those things happen. But not only that, it means that not only is he super intelligent, but he's also very loving to put that much effort into saving you and me.

Fulfilled prophecy is just one way that we can see God's Word in action. It's just one way that we can see that God exists. What about history or archaeology? What about King David? Do you know, many, but prior to 1993, most archaeologists who were atheists mocked the Bible because they said there was no such character as King David in history.

King David actually didn't exist. Oh, they acknowledged the kingdom of Judea, but there was no such thing as King David. They never found him. He was a fantastic fictional character of legend, but he wasn't a real king in history. He was sort of like King Arthur in the round table. He can't actually prove that he existed.

So was King David like King Arthur, or was he a real king and the forefather of Jesus Christ? This is from biblicalarcheology.org. It's from the article, The Tell Dan Inscription, the First Historical Evidence of King David from the Bible. A few modern biblical archaeology discoveries have caused as much excitement as the Tell Dan Inscription, written on a 9th century BC stone slab that furnished the first historical evidence of King David from the Bible.

The Tell Dan Inscription, or the House of David Inscription, was discovered in 1993 in the site of Tell Dan in northern Israel in an excavation directed by Israeli archaeologist Evram Biran. The broken, fragmentary inscription commemorates the victory of Armenian king over two southern neighbors, the king of Israel and the king of the House of David. In the carefully incised text written in neat Aramaic characters, the Aramaic king boasts that he, under divine guidance of the god Edad, vanquished several thousand Israelite and Judahite horsemen and chariters before personally dispatching both of the royal opponents.

Unfortunately, the recovered fragments of the House of David Inscription do not preserve the names of the specific kings involved in the brutal encounter, but most scholars believe that the Stella recounts a campaign of Hazel of Damascus in which he defeated both Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah. So, it's really easy for the critics, because the critics don't rely on proof for the Bible. What do the critics rely on? Doubt. Scientists do that with evolution all the time. They don't disprove God, they simply create doubt.

And they say, prove that he doesn't exist. And you can't prove a negative. You can't do that. That's not possible. So you have to go through and prove that he does exist. The same thing happened with the city of Nineveh. They said the city of Nineveh didn't exist, the story in the Bible is just a fantasy, therefore the Bible is made up, therefore God doesn't exist. And the reason they didn't find Nineveh was because it was in the suburbs of the city of Mosul in Iraq, and people were driving their cars over it.

Then one day they noticed this big rise, this big hill, that looked very unnatural. So they started digging in it, and lo and behold, they found the city of Nineveh. And the Bible was once again proven absolutely historically accurate. So you've got fulfilled prophecy, and you've got history. What about just thinking? Can you just use your brain and prove that God exists? Do you know you can? You can take all the facts that scientists come up with and then just reason it out. Just think it through, and you can see that God has to exist.

What about the complexity of the living cell? Charles Darwin, when he looked at a cell through his crude scopes that he had back in the day, just saw what looked like a blob, a simple little blob. And he thought that that was life's simplest form. He had no idea how absolutely complex the cell actually was.

And it was irreducibly complex. In other words, if it wasn't that complex all at the same time, the cell wouldn't function. So that it's actually impossible for the cell to develop to become complex. And we'll get to the logic of why it's impossible in just a second. But it had to actually be there all at the same time. DNA, which is inside the cell, contains really complex information. Let's use some logic here and ask the question. Can information come from non-information?

Can a stone become a beautiful building? Can grass grow into a beautiful woven hut or make itself into a basket with a handle? Can things, I mean anything, matter itself, create information? Well, no. A very famous German scientist, Dr. Werner Gitt, said, There is no known natural law through which matter can give rise to information. Neither any physical process or material phenomenon known that can do this. In other words, what he said was, Stuff things like my coffee cup here can't produce new information.

This lectern can't become a desk. Because that would require a new design, new measurements, new material to grow. It can't do it on its own. Information doesn't come from the universe. So where'd it come from? There's obviously information down into the smallest, tiniest little cell. If matter cannot produce information, but the universe runs like a clock, like a well-oiled clock, and so dependable it doesn't change.

Where'd the information come from? Use logic. Information itself cannot be created by natural selection, by mutations, nor by matter itself. So information has to come from outside the known universe. And hey, that's what the Bible says, isn't it? The Bible says that God is not limited by space or time. That God is actually outside the physical universe. And the universe has information which requires something outside it to put the information in. Therefore, just by logic alone, God has to exist.

The Bible is the only book that accurately explains where intelligence comes from. The Bible says that God is outside of space and time. He's not affected by time. He's eternal. And He didn't have a beginning. And that is absolutely required in order for there to be any information in anything. But you can't see God, and you weren't there when He created the universe. So belief requires a bit of faith. But at least it's not blind faith. All of that information had to have a beginning. And that beginning or origin had to be intelligent, and it had to be eternal.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have created new information. Science has already proven that matter doesn't produce information. Therefore, information had to come from outside. It's impossible for this complex, information-packed universe to have come about by chance. Intelligence requires intelligence to create it. Something or someone had to start it. And that someone had to have no beginning. Or someone else had to have created Him.

And so on and so on, to infinity. And eventually you have to arrive at the fact that there has to be an eternal being out there somewhere. So people say, oh, it takes faith to believe in God. You know what? Evolution requires you to stop thinking altogether. So that's true. Evolution requires blind faith. Believing in God might require faith, but at least we have evidence to support it. Psalm 14 and verse 1 now makes a lot more sense in context of logic.

In Psalms 14 and verse 1, it says, only a fool says in their heart, there is no God. King David is actually insulting the logic of people who say there's no God. And that means you can actually prove God just by thinking it through. So you can prove Him by fulfilled prophecy. You can prove Him historically. You can just think about it. And you can prove Him. And fourthly, you can prove Him through science. Science itself. Romans chapter 1 and verse 20 says, Romans chapter 1 and verse 20, For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Here are just a few scientific facts that create, again, a statistical impossibility for God not existing. It's actually impossible that there is no God. The sun is the perfect distance away from the earth to support life. Any closer and we would burn up. Any farther away and life would freeze and not exist. We are set like a jewel in a crown, exactly the right distance away from the sun. And then we have water, which apparently is a very rare resource in the universe. And water is needed to support life. So not only are we the exact distance away from the sun, we also have water. And we have an atmosphere. But not only do we have an atmosphere, it's the perfect mixture of oxygen and nitrogen that supports life. If we had too much oxygen, life could not exist. It would burn out. Not enough oxygen and too much nitrogen. And there would be not enough to support life. But we have just the right amount. Kind of like Goldilocks. Not too much, not too little. Just right. What about the size of the Earth? Do you know that is also perfect? Due to the size of the Earth, if we were any smaller, like the planet Mercury, there would be no atmosphere at all. The Earth would not have enough gravity to hold an atmosphere. But if we were any larger, the atmosphere would contain too much free hydrogen like Jupiter. The Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere with the right mixture of gases to sustain life, both animal life and human life. Because we are the size that we are. That proves God. But that's not only a thing to do with size. The size of the Earth also gives us the perfect gravity. Any smaller, and with the rate of spin that we have, we might just go flinging off the Earth. Any bigger, we wouldn't be able to lift an arm off the ground. We would just be stuck to the Earth. But we actually walk around freely, because the Earth is the exact size that it needs to be to provide the exact gravity in the exact position, the exact place or distance away from the Sun with enough atmosphere and enough water to support life. And that is a statistical impossibility. And you add all of the things necessary to create and sustain life. And the Earth has them all. And it is so impossible that you could take all of the known galaxies in the Universe, and you could not randomly come up with even one planet Earth. And that's why scientists come up with the alternate Universe explanation. Well, there's some engine out there somewhere, and by the way, they have no evidence of that whatsoever. It's just a wild, hail-married guess. Because they can't answer the fact that it's a statistical impossibility for there to be a planet in the Universe to randomly support life. And yet, here we are!

So they create multiple universes to increase the chances that Earth might produce life. And that makes great shows like Star Trek, where you can have an alternate Universe and go through and meet the evil Jim Kirk, you know? But the reason they came up with that theory was because it's a statistical impossibility for the planet Earth to even exist. And yet, here we are. Science can prove that God exists. Our Universe contains too much order for our existence to have been created out of chaos. Life in the Universe around us is so complex, beyond our imagination, when we look at such complexity, we see God and His creation. So many people think that science contradicts the presence of a Creator. Instead, science confirms that He exists. And you might like one of those things better than another, but none of those things are my favorite way to prove that God exists. And I like them all. I like fulfilled prophecy, I like archaeology and history, I like science, I like just using logic to prove He exists. None of those are my favorite way. My favorite way is personal interaction or personal experience with God. Answered prayers, for example. 1 John 5, verse 14. I know that God exists because I have a relationship with Him. I have no doubt in my mind that God exists because He interacts with me. He guides me, He teaches me, He corrects me, He disciplines me.

That's the number one way I love to tell people that God exists. 1 John 5, verse 14.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask Him anything according to His will, He hears us. How do we have confidence in God? Because we relate to Him, we talk to Him, and He answers.

Verse 15. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we will have the petitions that we ask of Him. I don't have to look any further than my family, than my wife and my kids that God gave me. What a blessing! I don't have to look any further than that. I could, because there's a lot more, but I could literally just stop there, and somebody says, Does God exist? I could just look at Him and go, Yeah. Are you sure? I'm sure. How can you not be sure? And brethren, that kind of confidence is contagious. People, even though the carnal mind is enmity against God, they're not subject to His law, nor can they be. They need God, and they need people to have that apologia, that thorough explanation of why they believe God exists.

He comforts you when you're down. He interacts with you, and He answers your prayers. He supplies your needs when you ask Him. He heals you when you're sick. Sometimes He doesn't heal us to give us a lesson, and in some cases to give us rest. Not only answer prayers, but He interacts with us. He corrects us when we drift away from the path that we should be on. Hebrews 12, verse 6.

How do you know He exists? Just get off track. You'll know He's there. Verse 7. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. Notice the action verb there. He deals with you. He interacts with you. And you know He's there. And you don't doubt it. For what son is there that a father doesn't chasten? Doesn't correct. Doesn't put back on the path. Christians have a relationship with God. We learn to talk to Him about everything. Eventually, you learn to just dump every feeling you have onto God and ask Him what to do. And you trust Him and He guides you. Psalm 55, verse 22. Read this from the New Living Translation. Psalm 55, verse 22. Give your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. And that is why my absolute favorite way to prove that God exists is personal relationship. It's one of the best ways to know that He's out there. Not only that He is, but He's for us. Hebrews 11, verse 6. Hebrews 11, verse 6. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For He who comes to God must believe that He is.

Must believe that He exists. And that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. If you want to have apologia, thoroughly explain why you know God exists. Teach people that not only does He exist, but you have a relationship with Him. And He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. So part of your defense is to tell the other person, just find Him. Just seek Him diligently. And you will, because He's there. I remember when I was a child, and I asked my mom if she ever doubted that God existed. Her confidence was contagious. I was so impressed she didn't even hesitate. She answered, I have no doubt. Who is behind the power and the beauty and the stunning complexity of the world around us? How can a hummingbird flap its wings so fast you can hardly even see them, just to drink nectar from the smallest flower? And how can an albatross, with its huge wingspan, travel 10,000 miles almost without flapping his wings? How did all of these things come to be? Can you answer that question Peter told us to? In 1 Peter 3, verse 15, where we started. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart. That means make Him special to you. And always be ready to give an apologia, a thorough explanation, to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. So what I encourage you to do is not really review this sermon. I gave you some points that I came up with for why I think God exists. And you can use those if you like them and they impress you, but I encourage you to come up with your own and make it personal. Put some time into thinking about all the different ways you can answer the question, especially to a child. How do you know God exists? Make them your answers. Nothing is more compelling than to have an answer from someone who believes. So answer from your own personal belief. It could be from science or history or fulfilled prophecy or just simple logic. And my personal favorite, having a personal relationship with God. An answered prayer, a miracle that can't be explained any other way that's personal to you. Find your personal favorite and think about them. And be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within you.