{"id":114,"date":"2018-11-06T16:37:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=114"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:40:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:40:53","slug":"random-rocks-at-rushmore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/random-rocks-at-rushmore\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Rocks at Rushmore"},"content":{"rendered":"
Random Rocks at Rushmore<\/span><\/div>\n

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Key Passage<\/strong>:\u00a0Isaiah 40:26:\u00a0\u201cLift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.\u201d<\/em>Key Thought:\u00a0<\/strong>The element of design in the world around us strengthens our solid biblical conviction that the Genesis account of Creation is true.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Computer Fiascos:<\/p>\n

<\/strong>1. \u00a0An irate customer called the hotline complaining about software not working. The man at the 800 number told her to mail in a copy of her defective diskettes. A few days later, the corporate office received a letter from the lady containing Xeroxed copies of the faulty floppies.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0A man called in to vent some steam about how his computer wouldn\u2019t fax anything. He had been holding a sheet of paper against the screen and vainly hitting the \u201csend\u201d button over and over.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0A third dissatisfied customer howled that her new computer wouldn\u2019t power up, even though she had hit the neat little foot pedal a great number of times. It turned out the \u201cfoot pedal\u201d was actually the computer mouse.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0The technician from Dell suggested to a flummoxed customer: \u201cMister, what you really need is to go to your local Egghead.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve got several of those,\u201d the angry man replied. When told that \u201cEgghead\u201d was the name of a popular local computer store, the client blushed and admitted: \u201cOh, I thought you meant for me to find a couple of computer geeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when computers are a mystery to us, we know it is a designed item. Somebody thought it up, researched it, and went to the drawing board.<\/p>\n

Family Story:<\/strong>\u00a0In How Now Shall We Live<\/em>, Chuck Colson relates the tale of a father and daughter at Disney World. Every exhibit seems to powerfully support the cosmic accident of evolution; Dave Mulholland\u2019s belief system is under attack. He finally buys Katy an ice cream cone; as they sit on a bench, he observes: \u201cIt\u2019s an immutable law of the universe, honey: everything that is designed has a designer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mount Rushmore:<\/strong>\u00a0 No tourist with a brain ever says to his family, as they travel through South Dakota: \u201cOh, look, kids, at what the wind and the rain and the snow and the eons of time and the \u2018glacial erosion\u2019 of drip-drip-drip caused to show up. Cool! There\u2019s Washington and Lincoln and Jefferson and Roosevelt all by blind luck!\u201d You know that an architect named John G. Borglum came along with a pretty big rock hammer and a designer\u2019s vision and the willingness to painstakingly birth the dream in his mind\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

Watch This!<\/strong>\u00a0English theologian William Paley used this illustration two centuries ago. If you\u2019re walking along a beach and suddenly bend over and pick up a beautiful watch, ticking away and keeping good time, you don\u2019t say to yourself: \u201cAmazing what the waves and the pounding surf and the tug of the tides will fling together if you just let enough centuries go by! A really nice watch that says Rolex on it! Thank you very much, currents and crawfish. I think I\u2019ll keep this.\u201d No, a wise person remembers what it says in Isaiah 40 and gives God the credit.<\/p>\n

Romans 1:20:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cFor since the creation of the world God\u2019s invisible qualities\u2014His eternal power and divine nature\u2014have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Colson concludes: \u201cPaul teaches that those who look honestly at the world around them should be able to conclude that it was created by an intelligent Being.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Miracle of Birth:<\/strong>\u00a0What an increasing number of scientists are now conceding is a valid field of study, \u201cID,\u201d or \u201cIntelligent Design,\u201d is even more true as this dad at Disney World talks to Katy about the fact that he IS her dad. Simply having a child\u2014you talk about design! When one egg and one sperm get together\u2014just two tiny cells\u2014and then for nine months multiply and divide, turning into all the right clusters of more cells, organs, blood, lungs, heart, brain, skin, entire systems. All at once, you see this new little life emerge. And it has a face! How did two cells turn into a little scrunched-up face? There are two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a very noisy little mouth and vocal cords. Within 15 minutes Daddy\u2019s giving her a bath and even having to already change a diaper, so those functions are working too. And he says to himself: \u201cThis is a designed miracle. This child is fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are the works of God!\u201d (Psalm 139:14.) This concerned-but-still-proud papa, Dave Mulholland, said to his daughter as they sat eating their overpriced Disney ice cream bars: \u201cHoney, everything I know about the universe, including my incredibly beautiful daughter, indicates to me that somebody designed it. Created it.\u201d
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\nLaw & Order:<\/strong>\u00a0Many branches of science concede that some form of \u201cIntelligent Design\u201d must surely be real\u2014and reluctantly use the idea in their work. Colson writes regarding forensic science: \u201cWhen police find a body, their first question is, Was this death the result of natural causes or foul play (an intentional act by an intelligent being)? Pathologists perform a battery of fairly straightforward tests to get an answer.\u201d A TV detective looks in the carpeting for clues; he sees a piece of thread here that doesn\u2019t look quite right, a bit of fluff over there which doesn\u2019t fit. Is there, as the title suggests,\u00a0CI\u2014criminal intent?<\/em>\u00a0Some person behind the evidence. Did the victim just slip and fall, or were they pushed?<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe Christian worldview [tells] us we were created by a transcendent God who loves us and has a purpose for us. Nature itself is covered with His \u2018fingerprints,\u2019 marks of\u00a0purpose<\/em>\u00a0in every area of scientific investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Invitation:<\/strong>\u00a0It is a wonderful spiritual breakthrough when a man or woman finally looks beyond the limited horizon of their own little world and determines to see the fingerprints of God. Many couples wait the nine months and go into the delivery room, see that scrunched-up face make its miraculous debut . . . and don\u2019t see beyond a romantic evening of fantasy and flowers nine months before. Babies get here because of what it says in the biology textbook and the sex ed curriculum. They simply don\u2019t SEE that their own baby having ten unique little fingerprints shouts at us: \u201cGod\u2019s fingerprints were here first! You didn\u2019t make this new life; God did! Wake up and smell the coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Say right now: \u201cEverything created must have a Creator . . . and I would like to get to know\u00a0my<\/em>Creator.\u201d
\n______________________________<\/p>\n

Submitted by David B. Smith. Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2007. Click here for\u00a0<\/span>usage guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Random Rocks at Rushmore Key Passage:\u00a0Isaiah 40:26:\u00a0\u201cLift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}