Sermon Central
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Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?
Contributed by Ervin Kimrey on May 20, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon attempts to give an answer to this often asked question. We need to learn a few things about God’s will in order to understand why things happen. We must also remember that God can make good come out of the bad. Is there really any good peo
WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE
We know by reading ( Rev. 20:1-10) that God will ultimately destroy satan and his host .
As Christians we look forward to that day with hope, many other people reject God and the gospel because of the fact that evil is still in the world. They might say things such as :---
~ A God who is good and loving would not allow evil and suffering in his world. ~ Yet evil exist in the world.
~ If God is all-powerful , He could remove evil if he wanted to.~ yet evil remains. And at times grows faster than we can under stand . So by these few statements they draw there on conclusion that a good and powerful God must not exist.
What do you say to a person that feels this way? How do we as Christians answer questions like this?
Many people stop straddling the fence after a major tragedy like the bombings on 9-11 . They either draw closer to God and let him help them through such times , or they blame him for it , and turn away from him.
The bible gives us some simple answers to the question . Why do bad things happen to good people?
Mark 10:18 Jesus said , Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one,that is God.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. For the Christian these two verses are answer enough to the question, but to those that do not yet know Gods love they wouldn’t understand .
1. THE ORIGINAL DESIGN
A. The bible teaches that is was not Gods plan for the world to have so much evil. The world that God made was Good. (Gen. 1:31)
B. But people themselves turned against God, using his gift of a free will to rebel against him. This is what destroyed the perfection of Gods world.
C. At the beginning of time just as now , satan is the promoter of all evil, his sole purpose is to attack anything Godly.
2. THE REASON FOR EVIL
A. We are the reason there is evil in the world
B. Even though God did not create evil, nor does he will it , However He will use it to accomplish His purposes.
C. God sometimes uses pain to draw people to himself, especially when they otherwise would not respond to Him.
Just as a Shepard will not use his staff on someone else’s sheep , God chastises only the ones that are his.
Psalm 23 Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
3. WHY DON’T GOD DO AWAY WITH EVIL ?
A. This question assumes that God has done nothing. But He has.
B. God himself came into this world, with all its sorrow and pain, and lived as a man. Jesus knew poverty , thirst , hunger , injustice, physical abuse , heartbreak , and betrayal . He knows our condition , He has already personally experienced it .
C He dealt with the problem of evil when he went to the cross , because he loves us .
D. Because of his sacrifice at Calvary we can break free from the grip of evil, but we must chose to do so .
He loves us so much he gives us a choice, It is hard to understand a love so strong that he will allow us to do what we want to do .
4. BLAMING SATAN
A. A lot of people don’t believe in satan , but he is real (job. 1:6)
B. We can find all kinds of reasons for sufferings ,but we need to blame the one at fault. Which is satan .
C. Job and his friends disagree on the exact cause of Job’s sufferings, but they all agree that people are morally responsible for the choices they make.
D. Just like people today , their focus was not on satan as their enemy as much as it was on God as their judge (Job 5:8 , 17 8:3-6 , 9:1-3 , 11:5-6 ) not one time did they blame satan for the sufferings.
5. GOD LIMITS EVIL
God clearly puts limits on evil , we have not and will not feel the full pain and suffering that could be delivered.
A. Adam and Eve After Adam had sinned God sent them out of the garden and sealed it off. Protecting them from possibly eating from the tree of life and being separated from him forever. (Gen. 3:22-24)
B. THE FLOOD restricted evil and made possible a second start for the earth. (Gen. 6:5-8)
C. THE TOWER OF BABEL Confusing the languages ( Gen.11:1-9)
D. JOB satan wanted to prove Job was only good because of God blessing him. So God granted him limited permission to inflict suffering. (Job. 1:6-2:10)
