You are listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from

pastor, author, and teacher David Platt.

Well, if you have a Bible, and I hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on

with, let me invite you to open with me to First Samuel chapter 2.

Feel free to use table of contents if you need to.

It's kind of close to the beginning of the

bible first samuel i want to start our time in god's word today with a question do you believe in

god now this is a question i'll often ask someone that i just meet or start to have a conversation with

about faith and sometimes people will say no, at which

point I usually try to ask a follow-up question. I'll ask, what kind of God do you not believe in?

And they'll often say, you know, some big guy in the sky who's distant from this world and

is always watching out

for all the things we do wrong, or some deity who doesn't care about all the evil in suffering

in the world or who can't do anything about it, at which point I'll respond, I don't believe

in that God either.

Then I'll ask if they would be okay if I shared about the God I do believe in.

And that's more of how I mean this question this morning,

especially since I'm speaking to you in the church where most of you would say,

yes, I believe in God.

Let me rephrase the question just a bit. What kind of God do you believe

in? I want to encourage you to really think about your answer to this question. So below

a surface level, deep down at the core of your heart and mind and life, what kind of God

...