Is God and religion something we made up? | Eric Shanburn

Many have questioned God's existence, but what if they've missed the most important truth? God created us for friendship with Him and invites us into a relationship marked by love, grace, and purpose.

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Good morning. It's great to be with you today. I'm really excited about this sermon series. Tim's away, JJ's away, and I get to do whatever I want. We're gonna have fun next couple weeks. I'm Eric Shammer, a discipleship pastor here. I've been here since September. It's been a great, great ride. I've been really enjoying it and uh get to get to preach from time to time, so I'm really excited to preach today and next week on this conspiracy theories series. Say that ten times real fast. Um, let me give you a little introduction to this uh this week and next week. So this week um is God and religion something we made up. It's a little more philosophical. Next week, is there a secret plan to destroy the world? That's a little more apocalyptic. So just uh enjoy the ride with me as we we dive into these these topics. But let me start by saying this a conspiracy theory is a claim that a secret group or individual is working behind the scenes to accomplish a hidden purpose. Dun dun dun dun. God feels like we should go there. Now, I want to clear the clear the room, clear, just clear things right here. I want to know where you stand today, okay? So if you are the kind of person who likes conspiracy theories and likes going down that rabbit hole, put your hand up. Yes, okay, there's not, I'm not, I'm not alone today. Great. Now what's that? Yeah, now that's right. Now, if you are a person who thinks people who like conspiracy theories and and go down that rabbit hole are annoying and weird, raise your hand. Okay. About half and a half here today. Okay. Just want to want to know what I'm dealing with here today. Okay. So bear with me. Now, when I was a uh kid, we would go in the summer, we would go to the library and we would do like a reading program. How many did that when you were a kid, right? I grew up in Royal Oak. So I remember um as a seventh, uh, as a seven-year-old, just started learning reading. I remember going to the library, Royal Oak Library for the reading program, the summer reading program. You walk in, it's like this, you see the big room of all the kids' books you can actually read now, you know. And I remember um they said, Well, you get to pick out whatever book you want. So I go around and I I ended up with two books I selected that first day. The first one was on the Loch Ness Monster. And the second one was on this guy, Bigfoot. So I've been in this for a long time. I've been in this for a long time. In fact, I don't know if you know this, but we actually uh invited uh Sass Squatch uh to join us today. Um he goes by Sassy Squatch. Where's Sassy Squatch at? There he is, right back there. Stand up, Larry. Stand up and say hi, Larry. So we're gonna have some fun today. But I want to start with a couple of pretty serious questions as we dive into today's topic, okay? Are you ready? Is there a conspiracy theory to dismantle religion, the Christian faith, or the Christian family? Whether it's today or in the past, I hear allow yeses. Let me ask you this other question. Is God and religion something we made up? We're gonna be talking about these couple things today, because probably the more the the four most prominent thinkers of the last couple hundred years actually believe that second sentence there. And we're gonna look at them today. These are four thinkers that have shaped our society, these are four thinkers that you learned about in high school and college, and that your children, when you send your children off to the public schools, high school, and college, they will be taught to believe that very thing. They've been called the soul, some people call them the god killers. That's what they've been called. You might know whom I'm gonna talk about in a minute. The first one, Charles Darwin. This is a quote by Charles Darwin. He said, Disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but at last was complete. Darwin taught that faith was something that we made up to deal with the unknown. It's really interesting because Darwin's whole plan was to explain the unknown through science and reason. Now, science and reason doesn't have to be incompatible with faith, right? It's all depends on where the Bible is. Is is is science and reason under the Bible or is it over the Bible? Right? That that's the question. Now, Darwin put it over the Bible, and eventually he left faith behind. Darwin flipped it and he rejected faith. Now, the next person I want to talk about is Karl Marx. So you can you can realize Darwin's impact on society and on faith and on people. And certainly Karl Marx has a huge impact as well. In fact, I think he's having more impact on our country now than he ever has made before. Um right now, with that's funny. Um this guy. You and I could probably go down the rabbit hole together. Okay. This is his quote. Religion is the opium of the people. So faith is a drug. Now, he had his explanation was that he said faith was what oppressed people used to deal with suffering. Okay. That's what he said. He said that your faith, your religion was something that you have to have to deal with the oppression you've experienced in your suffering. And to support injustice as well. I want to give you, I've read a lot of Karl Marx. He's a really fascinating person. He he actually wrote some poetry and did some journal stuff, so you can read some of his like personal writings, like journals and poems. I'm gonna give you a quote by Darwin or by Marx. Are you ready for this quote? This is something Marx wrote himself. You can fact-check me on it if you want. He said this I wish to avenge myself against the one who rules above. That was that was a quote by Marx. So did he have an ulterior motive? Sounds like it. He certainly offered an alternative to religion. Not that some of his thoughts aren't useful, but instead of salvation in Christ, what man really needs in his mind was economic liberation and social justice. And you look at the history of communism, there's a lot of Christian persecution. It's still going on today, I believe, in some countries that are communist. Very atheistic. It's a kind of religion. And it has attracted and swallowed up a lot of our young our young people today. He's not the only one. Frederick Nietzsche. Anybody read Frederick Nietzsche? It's a great way to put yourself to sleep at night. Very difficult to read, but his famous quote is God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him. Famous quote by Frederick Nietzsche, philosopher. He basically taught that faith is a crutch for the weak. Faith is a crutch for the weak, and it makes you weak. He believed that it should be replaced with new values by the strong and the creative. He had this concept called the will to power. That was what we need to take what's yours by any means necessary. Will to power. It's interesting. There's actually a movie, a Christian movie out that addresses some of these thoughts, and it's actually a response to Nietzsche. It's called God's Not Dead. Has anybody ever seen the movie God's Not Dead? So a lot of you have seen it. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. Check it out. God's Not Dead. Look it up on your streaming service. It's a great, great film to watch. One more person, you ready? Sigmund Freud. I don't know why I have an accent. Sigmund Freud. It's something you should have an accent when you talk about him. Religion is an illusion, and it drives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires. Basically, what Sigmund Freud taught was that faith is basically a neurosis. It's a pathological neurosis. It's not anywhere, it's foreign to reality. It's an illusion, he said. It's an illusion. It's not real. You're making it up. It's a part of, I guess, being a little crazy. Now, these four thinkers have influenced everyone in this room in our society. But let's review what they've said. Faith was made up to deal with the unknown, Darwin. Faith is a drug oppressed, is a drug oppressed people use to deal with suffering. Faith is a crutch for the weak and makes you weak. Faith is a pathological neurosis foreign to reality. A lot of these accusations and criticisms are all dealing with your feelings and your thoughts. But is your is your faith built on your feelings and your thoughts? No. That's not what we build our faith on. Our faith is not built on that. Faith does help us, thankfully. Amen. Gives us hope. Helps us know how to navigate life and where to go. But our faith stands on the historical words of God through the scriptures and the historical works of God through Jesus Christ. Amen. That's what your faith stands on. The promises of God, the word of God that endures forever, the works of God. It's not about our feelings and our desires. We don't trust those, do we? And we shouldn't. Not all the time. I want to share with you a statistic that's going to blow your mind. 64% of 18 to 29-year-olds who were raised in the faith disconnect from church starting in age 15. This was a study done in 2019. I'm certain it's accurate for today. It might even be worse. Two-thirds, almost two-thirds of our young people will disconnect. And it just so happens that during those that time frame of high school and college, guess what they're learning about? Guess what they're being taught to believe? Those four thinkers. The thoughts and the ideas and the beliefs of those four thinkers. You think it has, you think it's a coincidence? Probably not. Probably not. This is part of the reason why we have confirmation class before you turn 15. So we have that for seventh and eighth graders, right? Now we haven't dealt with this, but I may add it in this next year for our confirmation classes. I may add in some preparation for these four thinkers so that they're prepared when they do start having to read them and are taught them in school. What does Scripture say about all this? That's what we're going to look at right now. What does Scripture say about all this? This is serious stuff. We're talking about the eternal destination of our children, right? But it might not just be our children. You might be 65 and struggling with these issues. Maybe you just started reading Nietzsche late in life. I don't know. I don't know. But what does scripture say about all this? Romans chapter 1. Now, if you've never run the chapter, read the chapter 1 of Romans, I want to encourage you tonight, read the whole chapter. We're not going to go into the whole chapter, but I want to encourage you on your own time to read the whole chapter of Romans 1. Today we're going to look at six verses, starting in verse 18. It says, this is the Apostle Paul writing, he says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. This is a really important thing to know and to learn is that when we pursue sin, when we pursue ungodly things, when we follow those desires of things that are not of God or that are ungodly, that go against the scripture, when we pursue those things, we're also suppressing the Holy Spirit. See, the Holy Spirit is given to you in your baptism to guide you into all what? Truth. Right? To convict you of sin, to guide you in truth, to comfort you. If you have failed and are needing God's forgiveness. But this happens at the same time. Like if you're gonna sub if you're gonna pursue sin in some way, you're keeping the Holy Spirit out. And that's a dangerous road to walk down. Because what happens when the Holy Spirit steps back and says, okay. And God gives you over. Right? God gives you over. Read Romans chapter 1. He talks about it. Okay, so Paul's saying this, he's saying, he's saying, look, because of unrighteousness and ungodliness, men suppress the truth. What does it say next? For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. So he studies the heavens. And he and I talked to him a lot, and I I you know different times he's told me that there's a there's a lot of scientists who start out not believing, but eventually believe. Because of what of seeing God's creation in such detail as they as they see it in. Maybe there's biologists that as well who look down in into creation. But many are rejecting these god killers and are embracing at least a higher power, at least an intelligent designer. At least knowing that there's a God who created this beautiful, wonderful place, and there's something wrong with it, and it doesn't seem right. Right? They at least get to that point. So they're without excuse. He goes on to say, for although they knew God, but they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him as God, but became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. See, it's one thing to know God exists, it's another thing to honor him and give thanks to him. Right? It's one thing to know he exists, it's another to honor him with your life and to give thanks to him in your life. Um, Psalms 14 also talks about this. It says, in Psalms 14, it says, a fool says in his heart, there is no God. The Bible's pretty direct, pretty uh direct on these ideas of atheism. It's pretty direct. So basically, that's foolish. Just look around you, man. Maybe you have. Some of you have gone camping this summer, maybe you've looked out into the heavens and just in wonder of the enormity and the immense beauty and expanse of everything that you can just see with your eyes alone. Just imagine if you could see how far you could see into that. Maybe you've had these moments with God, wondering if he's out there, and you've been drawn to believe in him through the beauty of life, you know, through the birth of a child, through looking into the heavens. There's little moments in life where we get to see the one, the beauty of creation, and it draws you to him and to realize he's there. So I want to recap a couple things that are said here. How does thinking become futile and hearts become darkened? Because this is what I'm working, this is what I'm concerned about. How does thinking become futile? How do we get away from and leave the faith that we've been raised in? How does this happen? How do hearts become darkened? How do we get caught up in sin and walk away from God? How does this happen? Maybe you've seen this in your own family. Maybe you are someone who did this yourself and you've come back to God. It's a key question. Um, and I think this passage talks a little bit about it. Because it talks about one thing. It says, you know, one of the reasons is when we pursue living our life a certain way, a certain behavior, when we pursue things that are not of God, when we pursue that and we want that and pursue it, you push out the Holy Spirit. And you don't want to, the Holy Spirit's there to help you to follow God. So we suppress the truth when we seek unrighteousness. And when we don't honor and give thanks to God, we replace Him. What do we replace God with in our life?

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TV.

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Yeah, TV. Thank you. Lots of things you can, lots of things you can make an idol. Ultimately, our own mind and our own desires become our God. When you scrap God and all that He has and all that He's asked us to do, you just live for yourself. You live what you want to do. You will to power. You follow your desires. See, when we don't honor Him and don't give Him thanks, we look within and look to ourselves. What did they miss? This is the thing I've been asking. What did these four guys miss? Because I read their writings. Have you read their writings? I have, I've read their writings. And when you read, you read it and you're like, yeah, religion sounds awful. Faith in God, He sounds like a bad guy. You know, you just that's what they lead you to, right? Because they're missing. They don't tell the full story. They're not giving you the information that you need to know. They're not giving thanks for something that is really important. I want to give you these four things. Are you ready? These four things. That's what they missed. One, God loves you. They don't talk about that at all. That's not nowhere in their writings and their volumes and volumes. Nowhere does it talk about a loving God. But God loves you. The one who created everything loves you. Loves you personally. Knows you by name. That's an amazing thing. And not only that, but he's revealed himself to you. He's revealed himself in creation, he's revealed himself in his word, and he's revealed himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ's only begotten Son. He's taken the first step toward you. That's the message of Christianity, that God is stepping and moving toward you. And he's calling you to follow him in a relationship. An actual relationship. You won't find any of this in those writings. That's part of the problem, right? They're being taught to believe something different than what you taught them as a parent. Now I I've really I've read these authors. I've felt the weight of meaninglessness and the weight of atheism, the weight of agnosticism. I've dialogued and talked and reached out to friends who became a not a not agnostic. Um, I had a friend who called himself a non-theist. Like he had a specific reason why he chose that title. But I've I've talked with these guys and I've I've heard their stories and heard and listened to them, and I really felt for them and and I knew reading these writings what it was doing in my mind. And so years ago, a couple decades ago, actually, I actually wrote uh I put a record together. I wrote an album of music. Um it's still out there if you want to listen to it. Um the name of the project was called Behold Zoe, and the the name of this particular album was called Roe Quentin, who's an actual character in a book by Jean-Parr, Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher. So if you ever want to check it out, it's available. You can just look it up on one of some streaming service and uh you'll get a chance to see what I was, the lyrics I was writing and what I was trying to do was trying to reach out and to offer a message of hope in Christ, but still show some empathy for what they were going through and the questions and doubts they had. So some of you might be interested in that. But I want to get back to scripture because this is the scripture that tells us what God is saying to you this morning. Jeremiah 33, 2 to 3. This is a great verse. I can't help thinking about Darwin. When I read this, I think about Darwin. Listen to what God says through the prophet Jeremiah. This is what the Lord says He who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it, the Lord is his name. He's personal. And he says to you, Call to me, and I will answer you. And I'll tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. It's kind of amazing that Darwin, his criticism was that, well, you guys, you religion and faith, that's all been made up to deal with the unknown, of which I'm going to help you understand through science and reason. God says, I made the earth, I established it. Call to me, I'll answer you. We'll have a relationship, and I will teach you all the mysteries of the universe. I'll teach you the things you do not know. That's the promise from God. And we know that one day we will have those answers, won't we? Amen. Now, Revelation 3, chapter 20, listen to this. Jesus said, this is Jesus speaking. He says, Here I am, I'm at the door, the door of your heart, and I'm knocking. He's knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and eat with that person and they with me. What do you do when you want to get together with your best friend? Calm up, what do you do? You go out to eat, don't you? Usually. Think about all the meals you have with the hangout with your best friend. You know, when you have your anniversary, what do you do? You go out to eat. When you have a date night, what do you do? You go out to eat. I had a friend I met a long time ago. He was from Africa. I'll never forget something he said to me. He said, um, when we eat together, we're friends forever. Jesus is standing at the door of your heart. He's calling to you. John 3.16, the best verse you can memorize in the whole Bible. For God so loved the world, uh, by the way, that the Greek word for world, if this was written in the original language, was Greek that it was written in. It's actually cosmos. For God so loved the world, the cosmos, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life. These verses tell us detail, God's love, God's revelation, and God's invitation to you. I want to close on this one last verse, one of my favorite passages in the Bible. And as I do this, um, the worship team will be coming up on stage as well. John chapter 15. Now, this is something Jesus says. It's from the Gospel of John. Jesus says this. Now, this is before he dies on the cross, okay? Got that in your mind? This is before he dies on the cross. He's with the disciples, he's talking to them. This is what he says to them. He says, Greater love has no one than this. To lay down one's life for one's friends. It's pretty amazing that it's a few chapters later, that's exactly what Jesus does. He lays down his life for his friends. Jesus says to them, he says to you, you are my friend. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. Instead, I call you friends. Why? Because for everything that I learned from my father, I've made known to you. Once again, addressing Darwin's main accusation. It's pretty amazing. Jesus is calling you his friends. It's really, you know, this idea that we can have a friendship with God, the creator of the universe, you can actually have that. If you don't have that today, my hope is that you walk away believing that you can have that. That you can have a friendship with God Himself. It's pretty amazing. This is why Jesus laid down his life, because he loves you. See, his death reconciled us. We were separated because of sin. And every time we pursue sin, it just creates a distance between us and God. Right? We suppress the Holy Spirit. Keep him back. That's what sin does. And not only between us and God, it also creates a distance between you and each other as well. The cross reconciles us to God, but it also reconciles us to each other. It's like the two parts of the cross. You have the vertical and the horizontal. Critics missed this, didn't they? They missed it. They didn't include any of this. This is not going to be taught in your public schools. It will not be, right? It's not going to be taught there. It's not about religion working your way to God. It's about God working himself to you for a relationship. And you can have it. But just in closing, let me just say this. We do need to cultivate the relationship. Just like any relationship, we got to cultivate it, don't we? I'm guessing that's why you're here today. To cultivate your relationship with God.

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