Demographics reveal that 94% of Americans believe in God. Almost everyone you run into will tell you that they believe in God. Of the six percent who don't, only four percent would say that they are atheist. The vast majority of people already believe in God. The question is: “Who is that God, and what is he like?”

 Adelai Stevenson said he wanted to introduce a new word into the English dictionary. It's not yes or no; it's the word “yo.” Both yes and no.  I think when it comes to God a lot of people are just kind of Yo. They don't want to say that God doesn't exist because if he does exist, why make him mad. Yet they aren't really sure who he is or the impact he should have on their lives. So they just say, “Yeah, I believe in God. I'm good with that. . . but not too much.”

1.  Because He is REAL

 

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities . . . and divine nature — have been clearly seen . . . so that men are without excuse.

  

Evidence for God’s Existence:

 COSMOLOGICAL – (Cosmos) the 2^nd law of Thermodynamics says the universe is running out of usable energy . . . . . This means that the universe must have a beginning, thus a Creator who existed before the beginning.  This is typically referred to as the “First Cause Argument” 

 

 TELEOLOGICAL – The complexity and design of the universe shows signs of purpose (telos) and thus, must have a designer.  This is sometimes called the argument of “Intelligent Design”

 

AXIOLOGICAL – The universal presence of good and a moral conscience.  Gk word (axia) means value or worth, virtue . . . goodness.  This is sometimes simply called the “Moral Argument.”

Generally, we don’t have to tell people the major Rights and Wrongs. 

 

 ONTOLOGICAL – The universal and time-tested belief in the presence of God.  A being greater than God cannot be conceived.  This is sometimes the “Majority Argument”

 

Blaise Pascal said: “The heart has reasons which reason knows not of."   A God-shaped hole in the human soul.

 

Augustine said: "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are rest-less till they find their rest in you."

 

Other arguments:

          Anthropic – we exist, therefore God must. 

          Transcendental – higher virtues and philosophy don’t make sense without God

          Pantheistic – God is everywhere

          Anecdotal evidence . . . . . listen to what God has done in my life . . . .

 

Hebrews 11:5    Now FAITH is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see . . . .

 

 2.  Because the ALTERNATIVE is a BAD CHOICE

 

Psalm 53:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God."

James 2:19: You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.

 

Atheism – God does not exist

Agnosticism – We don’t know if God exists.  IF he does, we can’t know him.   Acts 17 – Unknown God

Deism – There is a God but he’s not aware of us.  He created us , then left us alone in the universe. 

 

 If there is no God . . . .

 

          -My Life is a Big ACCIDENT Ecclesiastes 1

 

          -No Reason to Live Right             1 Cor 6:9-10; 2 Thess 1   

 

-A Moral Vacuum              Gen 6, Judges 2, Romans 1

 

ILL - To counter all the deep stuff we’ve been talking about, let me share with you Dr. Seuss's story of the young zoad.

“Did I ever tell you about the young zoad who came to a sign at the fork in the road?  The zoad had to make up his mind what to do. Well the zoad scratched his head and his chin and his pants and he said t o himself, 'I'll be taking a chance. If I go to place one, that place may be hot. So how will I know if I like it or not? If I go to place two and I find it's too cool, in that case I may catch a chill and turn blue. So place one may be best and not place two. Play safe,' cried the zoad, 'I'll play safe; I'm no dunce. I'll simply start off to both places at once.' And that's how the zoad who would not take a chance went no place at all with a split in his pants.”

  

3.  Because He LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING

 

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 

 He offers you purpose and meaning and forgiveness and salvation You see, I think the real source of doubt some people have about God has a lot more to do with disillusionment and disappointment than scientific evidence.  In other words, the greater question may not be does God exist, but the one we’re asking, “Why should I believe in Him?”  What can he do for me? 

 150 times in the NT the character of God is captured by one word: “Father.” 

Your experience with your Father . . . . . . . .    He is never absent.

 

Magazine story with Billy Bob Thornton – he didn’t quite measure up to his dad’s expectations . . .

 

Story of Toby Dawson finding his father and his way back home  . . .

 

 “Even if you don’t believe in God, He believes in you.”

 

 1. Offers lasting meaning.

Eccles. 1:1-3 (NIV) The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: [2] "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." [3] What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

 

2. Gives significance.

Eccles. 1:4-8 (NIV): Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. [5] The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. [6] The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. [7] All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. [8] All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

 

 3. Empowers life change.

Eccles. 1:9-11 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. [10] Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

 

Eccles. 12:13-14 (NIV): Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

 

 The words to that song are really, really powerful. Particularly when he says, “I look at my daughter and I believe.” For some it's that simple. They look around. They look at life.

They look at all the things that are going on. They look at their children; they look at the miracle of life and they just believe. Yet for others it's a lot more complex. They look around and see all these things, and yet they also see a lot of suffering in the world. They see a lot of struggles and a lot of pain. They try to believe but they find it very difficult. When I look at my daughter she asks me a similar question most days of the week. It always starts with one word -- why? She's four and she's in the “why” phase. Will she ever grow out of it?

She asks why all the time. Not too long ago I was putting her down to bed. I said, “Emma, it's time to go to bed.” She said, “Why?” I said, “Because it's bed time.” She said, “But it's still light outside.” I said, “That's because we moved the clocks forward an hour. Spring forward -- that is what we do. Even though it's light outside it's still bedtime.” She said, “Why did we move the clocks forward?” I said, “I don't know. We just did.” She said, “Why?” I said, “Look. Because Benjamin Franklin first suggested the idea in an essay titled 'An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.'” Nah. I didn't say that. I said, “I don't know. I have no idea. Just go to bed!” I finally go upstairs and get her all tucked in, and she says, “What are we going to do tomorrow?” I said, “Well, you are going to go to preschool.” She said, “Why?” Here we go all over again.

I tell you that story mainly because I just want you to feel my pain, but also because we ask this question when we are kids, when we are growing, when we are aging. Too often when we become adults we get so busy with so much going on that we stop asking the critical questions in life. That's why we are doing this whole 40-day experience. Last week we talked about getting off the treadmill of life and pausing for 40 days to ask some of the bigger questions. Allow God to do a work in our lives as we do.

Today we are asking the question, “Why should I believe in God in the first place?” Why should I believe? It's a very important question. In fact, Mortimer J. Adler, one of the greatest thinkers in the twentieth century said that this question, the God question, is the most important question a person could ask. More consequences follow from the way you answer that question than any other question in life. More consequences follow from the way you answer the God question than any other question in life.

We wanted to get a sense or a feel for where some people were. We took a camera crew down to the strip and asked some folks walking around what they thought God was like. Their answers were interesting

Those are just some thoughts and perspectives on who God is. Now demographics reveal to us that ninety-four percent of Americans believe in God. Almost everyone you run into will tell you that they believe in God. Of the six percent who don't, only four percent would say that they are atheist. The vast majority of people already believe in God. The question is: “Who is that God, and what is he like?”

Adelai Stevenson said he wanted to introduce a new word into the English dictionary. It's not yes or no; it's the word yo. Both yes and no. I think when it comes to God a lot of people are just kind of Yo. They don't want to say that God doesn't exist because if he does exist, why make him mad. Yet they aren't really sure who he is or the impact he should have on their lives. So they just say, “Yeah, I believe in God. I'm good with that.”

I want to look with you today at the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible. It's the journal entries of a guy named Solomon who went on a journey. He explored life as what he called “under the sun” with no regard for the God who is above the sun. In other words, he did this whole life experiment. He lived passionately, and he lived fully. He went on this quest to find meaning apart from God. As we look at his journal entries and look at him write down his experiences he makes a pretty compelling case for why a person should believe in God. I would go further than just say why a person should believe in God, but why a person should be in a relationship with God. That word, believe, gets thrown around a lot.

It can just sort of mean a whole lot of things. We can believe in a whole lot of stuff that doesn't effect or impact our lives. I think what Solomon is writing about is a relationship with God.

 The first reason he tells us to have a relationship with God is because it gives meaning. It offers lasting meaning to our lives.

Solomon was King of Israel for forty years in a time of peace. They guy had wealth. He would have made Bill Gates look like a pauper. He had it going on. He was the wealthiest king of his time. He earned more than twenty-five tons of gold a year. Not including all the taxes that he received from different merchants and revenues from people traveling through his territories. He had all kind of wealth and money. So much that the people who lived in Jerusalem said that Solomon made silver like stones. It was just everywhere. That's some wealth, right? He threw it into this quest of living like there was no God, into this life experiment. He records his journal entries in Ecclesiastes 1:3 with his conclusion, which is how they would often do it in the ancient world in these kinds of books. He begins with the end and then tells us how he got there. He says, “The words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.' What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”

Here is Solomon who has done this life experiment, this whole life journey for many years which he chronicles through the book of Ecclesiastes. He's thrown himself into all kinds of different things. At the end of the day apart from God, he says, he can't find any lasting meaning. He said it's meaningless. That word meaningless could literally be translated in the English language like a sigh. Some of you have seen the movie, Napoleon Dynamite, where he goes, “Ohhhhh.” It's just a sigh of frustration and weariness. We all face it. You get out on the freeway and suddenly the traffic goes into gridlock mode. You come to a stand still. What do you do? “Ohhhhh.” You just sigh out of frustration. You may be sitting in a parking lot; you shut the car down and get out. You reach out on the door handle and lock the car door. Just as you shut the door, as it leaves your hand, you look up and see your keys hanging from the ignition. “Ohhhhh.” It's that sense of weariness and frustration.

Not too long ago I was upstairs and the kids were in the bathtub. I have a four-year-old and a year and a half old. They are just doing their thing when my daughter yells, “Dad, brother is going potty in the bathtub.” “Ohhhhh.” A friend of mine was telling me about getting on a plane and he got positioned next to two huge burly guys, one on each side of him. He's a big guy so he's kind of scrunched. He said the guy on his left had a sleeveless shirt on and needed deodorant desperately. He continued to reach up and adjust the airflow the entire flight. He said every five minutes he'd reach up and change it. “Ohhhhh.”

It's a sense of weariness and frustration. It might be when you get a phone call from your teenager and he tells you that he's in a fender-bender again. It might be when you get out of bed in the morning and you are walking to the bathroom. You pull your back and you realize you are not as young as you used to be. The body is not functioning like it used to function. You get weary and worn out.

When we get tired and get to that place in our lives, that's when we start asking the “why” questions. Why am I here? What is the point of it all anyway? How does it all fit together?

Am I here just to get up and go to work all day so I can come home, go to sleep, get up, and go to work all day so I can come home, go to sleep, get up, and go to work all day? What's the point? That's what Solomon said. He got there after taking all of his wealth and resources and throwing them into this life experiment. He did the sex thing, booze, drugs, and did exotic entertainment. He did art collections and incredible building projects.

Solomon liked to build. He made Donald Trump look like he was sitting on his hands. This guy built stuff. His palace, his house, took thirteen years to construct with an army of people the brightest and best architects that the world knew at the time. He used the best materials available on planet Earth. It took thirteen years. It took seven years to construct the temple in Jerusalem. Solomon built at least six cities that we know about. He built the wall around Jerusalem. He's done all this stuff.

It's interesting in his journal entries as he writes about it there is this phrase that you see again and again. It's the phrase “for myself.”

I've constructed palaces for myself. I've constructed ponds and gardens for myself. I've constructed cities for myself. I've constructed all of these things for me. At the end of the day, he said, it was all meaningless. We toil, work, and do all this stuff. And what is the point of it all? There was no lasting meaning.

That word meaningless can literally have the idea of a mist that sort of rises off the ground in the morning. When the sun hits that mist it dissipates. Solomon says that everything he pursued in life apart from God would appear that it would give meaning. It would be a lot of fun initially, but soon it would be like that mist in the morning. It would disappear. He said it's like chasing the wind. You are always onto the next thing. You are always on to the next thrill. You are always on to the next deal. He said the meaning that it gives you doesn't last.

We don't really need to hear this this morning, right? We got it. We're in church. We would never think about pursuing lasting meaning in our life apart from a relationship with God.

Yo!

Brad Pitt was in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. He said this about the American Dream. “If you ask me, I say toss all this. We have to find something else. The emphasis now is on success and personal gain. I'm sitting in it, and I'm telling you that's not it. I'm the guy who has everything, I know. I'm telling you that once you have everything then you are just left with yourself.” Once you have everything then you are just left with yourself. “It doesn't help you sleep any better and you don't wake up any better because of it.”

That's where Solomon found himself. He had everything. He was just left with himself. He said there wasn't enough meaning there to last. We realize the importance of a relationship with God.

It's more than just believing that there is a God out there somewhere. It's more than just rules. It's more than just joining a club. It's more like a marriage. We're in this relationship with God. US News and World Report did an article recently on a whole rise among college students and young adults who are seeking spiritually. It talks about how thousands and thousands of young adults around our country are hungry for God and are wide open spiritually. One particular girl they interviewed said, “You can be at church every single Sunday and still not be spiritually in tune with God. It's more about your relationship with God -- talking with God on a daily basis, reading your Bible, trying to get to know God, and having a one on one relationship with him instead of just showing up to church on time and not drinking.” It is about a relationship with God. That's what Solomon learned after he threw himself into this life experiment.

Another thing that he mentions in the book of Ecclesiastes is that a relationship with God will give our lives significance. It will give our lives lasting meaning and significance. He talks about it in chapter 1:4 from the opposite perspective. As he reaches the conclusion of life without God he doesn't find significance at all apart from God. Here is what he says, “As generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.” This guy was majorly bummed out. Do you get that sense? He's not in a good place. He's looking around at nature and he's seeing all of the aspects of nature. The sun rising and setting, generations coming and going, and he's just flat worn out. G.K. Chesterton once made a comment that feelings from despair don't come so much from having a lack of things but having an excess of things. It's an interesting thought.

I wonder if Solomon is here. With everything the world has to offer and he's in absolute despair. He said, “What's the point? The sun rises and the sun sets, it's just going to happen again.” You can sense the monotony; it's insignificant. It doesn't matter. Who gives a rip? Who cares if the sun rises and the sun sets? Life just keeps going.

Science can look around and tell us the “what” of human observation. It can tell us and teach us about the air blowing to the north and the south. It can give us insight into the sun and its movements. It can tell us about the universe and how things work.

Steven Hawking, the Cambridge professor of Mathematics, said, “Science must be content to describe the 'what' of human observation. Only God can describe the 'why.'”

Solomon is asking why. I think as you look around at the complexity of our world, earth, and planet, and the complexity of life, you can see the signposts to the why. You can see signposts to the God beyond.

Just let me give you a deep, profound example. Take our hermit crabs at our house. We've got these wonderful hermit crabs, Eliza and Jango, that we got this last Christmas. I was fighting the urge to get hermit crabs. I didn't want to go there. My daughter was asking for them. We got right down before Christmas and she asked for a Barbie doll instead. I was all fired up and then our wonderful friends at the Central tech crew bought hermit crabs for my daughter. I have a picture of them. We call this hermit heaven. It has a bridge, a palm tree, and that's where they live.

Did you know that a hermit crab could live fifteen years? Really. That's a bummer. There are 800 different species of hermit crabs. There are 6,000 different species of crabs in general. They are amazingly complex for the little creatures that they are.

If you think about the uniqueness of planet Earth among all of the studies we've done in the entire universe, planet Earth is the only place wired up where life is actually living. The complexity of our universe aligning as it did so that my hermit crabs can be alive is tremendous.

Just think about something that we don't often think about…the earth's core. Just think about the center of the earth. There are a couple scientists from the national academy of science and another from Harvard University, Frank Press and Raymond Seaver. They said this: “The earth's interior is a gigantic but delicately balanced heat engine fueled by radio activity.” Every now and then that heat engine cooks up in the city of Las Vegas in August.

“If running more slowly the continents might not have evolved in their present form. If there had been more radio active fuel, therefore a faster running engine, volcanic dust would have blotted out the sun, the atmosphere would have been oppressively dense and the surface would have been racked by daily earthquakes and volcanoes.” That's just the complexity of the center of our earth and how it is wired up in such a way for life to exist.

Then you think about something as far away as the sun. Solomon says the sun rises and sets yet the sun is ninety-three million miles away. It's twenty-seven million degrees Fahrenheit at its core. All of this provides us with the perfect mixture of warmth and energy.

The sun's mass is three hundred times that of earth. Yet it is the perfect size for life to exist. If it were bigger it would omit a blue radiation that would interrupt the ozone layer and lead to a flood of ultra violet radiation, which would be disastrous to life. If the sun isn't the size that it is at the distance that it is with the core as hot as it is there would be no hermit crabs. It's amazing. The gravity ratios, the tilt of the earth, the rotation of the earth, all of it is unparalleled in its ability to sustain life. All of it is unparalleled in the entire universe. The complexity is mind-boggling.

As Solomon looks out at the “what,” the sun rising and setting apart from God, he just sees insignificance. Yet I believe that when you look at those same things through the eyes of faith you begin to realize that the “what” points to the “why.” The “why” can give significance to our lives. In other words, when we bring God into the monotony of our lives, it makes even the most small and boring details filled with meaning. It really does.

Most of us live pretty monotonous lives. Monotonous in the sense that we do a lot of the same things day in and day out. We go through the same patterns, right? Some of you come to church every weekend. You park in the same area; you walk in and sit in the same area of the auditorium. We're predictable. As people we are pretty predictable. We go to the same place; we sit in the same seats. We navigate life in a monotonous way.

Tony Evans once talked about the monotony of life. He said you wake up in the morning and put the same slippers on, you walk to the same old closet, and you get the same old robe to put on. You go down the same old stairs to the same old kitchen table and have the same old breakfast. You go back upstairs and get ready the same old way. You put the same old work clothes on. You go downstairs, get in the same car, and drive the same old way to work. You get to the same old job. You face the same old challenges. You look at the same old people. You navigate the same old issues. You get in your car and drive the same old way back home. You get to the same old house. You walk in and kiss the same old wife. You sit down and eat the same old food. You watch the same old TV show. You sit in the same old chair. When it's all said and done you get up and walk upstairs. You climb into the bed at night, ask the same old question, and you get the same old answer. You go to sleep, get up the next morning, and do it all over again. It's just kind of monotonous. It's life.

That's what is wearing Solomon out. The sun rises and sets. The wind blows and it's just one thing after another.

Let me challenge you with this thought: When you bring God into your own personal monotony suddenly there is significance in the details. Some of you are here and you've been Christians for many, many years. I want to challenge you to bring God into your monotony. Bring him right into it.

Some of you aren't even sure if you believe in God. That's okay--just take a risk. Do the opposite of what Solomon did. Live this week as if there were a God. Pray to him, talk to him, and act like he's actually there.

You may be surprised at the meaning and significance of the meaning that may come into your own monotony.

Let me put it to you this way--in the Jewish calendar a day begins at dusk. That's when the next day begins. Not in the morning but at dusk. That's why when you look at the book of Genesis it says, “God created the heavens and the earth.” It goes through all the creation account and then it says, “There was evening and there was morning the first day.”

Some of you may have read it and thought, “Why wouldn't it be there was morning and there was evening?” Because in the Jewish mind the day starts at dusk. That's the beginning of the next day.

Here is the opportunity for us: At dusk tonight, before you go to sleep, as you are climbing into bed, bring God into the monotony of your day. I'll simply often lie in bed and before I fade off to sleep I just thank God for the day. I'll thank him for the challenges and the opportunities. I'll lay my cares and burdens at his feet. I'll just say, “God, take all of this.” I'll confess my sins and thank God for that experience. Do you know what I've found? I sleep better when I do that. One of the biggest epidemics facing our culture is sleeplessness.

You might find you sleep better. Now after I go to sleep the alarm goes off in the morning. I hit it. It goes off again. I hit it. It goes off again. I hit it. Eventually I actually get up.

Sometimes that alarm is our young son, and I can't hit him so we have to get up and face the day.

Do you know what? On my best days when I get out of bed, I'll do one of two things. I'll either say, “God, thanks for today.” Or I'll get down on my knees real quickly and say, “Thank you, and may today be lived for you.” It's simple. I'm not the most spiritual guy in the world.

There are people who pray for three or four hours a day. Do you know what I'm talking about? Sometimes the thought “I don't have enough time to spend four hours with God” paralyzes us. What would I do in that time?

Let me challenge you to do this: Just bring God with you into the monotony of your normal day.

I say, “God, thanks for the day.” I get up, get ready, and kiss my kids. “God, thanks for my kids.” I get in my car and I'm driving to work. Sometimes I listen to the radio. Sometimes I listen to some CD's, like we play on the platform here. I'm singing worse than the worst shower singer you have ever heard in your life. That's okay because there's only one person that I have an audience with. It's doing something for me spiritually. It's keeping me in the right frame of mind. Bring God into that and it will bring significance into your day.

Another thing about God is that a relationship with God will empower a life change. What do you want to change about you? Better yet, what does your spouse really want to change about you? It's like the lady who said, “My husband is so temperamental. He's ninety percent temper and ten percent mental.”

We all have issues. We have anger issues, addiction issues, compulsiveness issues--we have different things that we struggle with.

What is it that you want to change? One of the things that I get a front row seat to see on a regular basis is how the power of God can change a person's life if we really surrender to him and bring him in to the monotony of our lives. It can bring life change.

Solomon looked out in Ecclesiastes 1:9. He's looking out and saying that he's considered life as if there is not God. If there is no God, then I don't see any change really happening.

“What has been will be again. What has done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look? This is something new?' It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.” We may read that and say, “Solomon, we have lots of new things. New things are happening all the time. We have the iPod. Then there is that really cool Ford Mustang that I have to have. There is new stuff all around us.

What are you talking about?” Solomon was considered the wisest man on earth in his time. Kings and queens would travel just to get a court with him; just to listen to his wisdom. So I don't think that Solomon is saying that there aren't new things. There are new things all the time.

What Solomon is doing is he's looking down through the passages of time and saying, “We're still struggling with the same old things.” The same old behavioral patterns don't change.

There is a big difference between the way Genghis Kahn killed with a sword and the way we do it today with high tech weapons and equipment. But the behavioral pattern is still the same. Murder, envy, domination, crime, and hatred -- we see it on the news every night. The behavioral patterns are still the same. He says, “I just don't see any change in life apart from God.” Yet Solomon would go on at the end of his book, after he journals through his whole experience searching for life and meaning apart from God. He searched for it in entertainment and in all these things. He journals it out. He gets to the end in chapter 12:13. He says, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

This is the conclusion of the whole deal. Fear God and keep his commandments. It could be translated, “For this is the whole man or the whole woman.” Do you want to have peace in your life? Balance and health in your life? Solomon says to take it from someone who has been down the road -- someone who has done a lot of bad stuff, someone who has navigated a lot of landmines. Fear God and keep his commandments. He's giving us this front row seat to this wisdom that was only learned in the trenches of life. Fear God and keep his commandments.

This is the whole of being human. This is what it's about. As we do that we will find lasting meaning and significance. We'll even find the power to change.

I get to see it again and again. On Fridays we have a whole ministry called “Addicted to Hope.” Many people come together that have found hope in the power of God to overcome different addictions in their lives.

I was with a friend named Rob not too long ago. His daughter is in college. She struggles with this uncontrollable urge to purge herself. She's gone into the hospital, and her life has been threatened over the last several years because of the level of this issue. She, through the help of counselors and doctors, and by her own admission with the help of God, is finding the ability to get victory of this area of her life. It was so cool to be there when she called her dad on his cell phone. She said, “Dad, I'm really having a tough day and I really want to go purge.” To listen to her dad on the phone calmly coach her, pray with her on the phone, and then he hung up. He was in a good mood. I said, “How can you be in a good mood knowing your daughter is in this place?” He said, “Jud, I've been down this road. My daughter is not going to purge today.” And she didn't. “Because she's open, and God is doing something in her life. I've had to learn that I can’t control her. I have to surrender her to God. I have to love her and walk along side of her and be there for her.”

That's the power of God bringing real change into someone's life. It can happen. It does everyday. It can happen in our lives as well.

It's not just about believing in God, it's being in a relationship with God.

There is a wonderful passage in the book of James in the New Testament. James 2:19: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.” What does that mean? Even the demons believe there is a God. The question is what difference does God make in our lives? What difference does that relationship make in our lives? Is it real? Is it tangible? Is our faith showing itself in action? That's the difference.

I want to encourage you to bring God into the monotony and just do a little life experiment for those who aren't even sure that he's there. See if he doesn't show up in your world.

Dr. Seuss is someone that we read a lot of in our house. Let me share with you Dr. Seuss's story of the young zoad.

“Did I ever tell you about the young zoad who came to a sign at the fork in the road. The zoad had to make up his mind what to do. Well the zoad scratched his head and his chin and his pants and he said to himself, 'I'll be taking a chance. If I go to place one, that place may be hot. So how will I know if I like it or not? If I go to place two and I find it's too cool, in that case I may catch a chill and turn blue. So place one may be best and not place two.

Play safe,' cried the zoad, 'I'll play safe; I'm no dunce. I'll simply start off to both places at once.' And that's how the zoad who would not take a chance went no place at all with a split in his pants.”

Friends, will you take a chance on God? Some of you may have been hurt in your life. You may have gone through a lot of pain, and maybe taking a chance on God may be asking a lot. But will you do it? Some of you may be struggling with addictions and relationships, and you don't understand why things are going on right now. Things seem out of control. Will you take a chance on God?

Some of you aren't even sure he's here, but will you take a chance on him and let him move in your life? Starting at dusk before you go to bed, just say, “God, I want to invite you into my night and into my morning and into this week.” See if he doesn't bring lasting meaning and significance and real change into your life.