The Problem of Evil
Teaching Notes
Questions
Why does God let terrible things happen? Child sexploitation
David never mentioned the rape of Tamar, does it matter to God?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
If God is a good God and He created such a beautiful world, why is it often a painful place?
Why doesn’t an all-powerful, loving God take care of the evil and shut it down?
Life is hard.
The Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust.
Matthew 5:45
Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
Job 5:7
Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I’ve overcome the world.
John 16:33
We need to talk about these things.
One of the first steps to healing in trauma training is to tell your story.
Why are things like they are?
And Where is God when it hurts?
Start with God’s design.
The right to choose.
God’s goal is for love to define His relationship with us.
God warned Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with the words, if you do, you will die.
Genesis 2:17
They chose to be the God of their life.
You and I have chosen to be our own god.
We live in a sin-stained world.
The Bible says that even the earth groans, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.
Romans 8:22
He didn’t send the bad.
If He truly is God, why doesn’t He stop it?
Not everything in the world is determined by cause and effect.
God has to allow some random in the world to protect our right to choose.
Love makes life worth living.
Loss doesn’t have to be the end of your story.
In times of tragedy, you have a choice in your pain: you can turn to Him or from Him.
It is helpful to think about what He did do.
Jesus came to redeem man’s poor choice and buy back with his death the right to choose.
Jesus didn’t die for His sin.
He died for the sins of Adam and Eve, who claimed to be their own God.
He died for your sin and mine.
He purchased a second chance for us to choose.
He still doesn’t force us to choose Him.
Let’s summarize
We are born into sin.
We live in a fallen, broken world system.
There is random in our world.
We have an active adversary who works against us
God’s given us His Spirit to combat evil.
There is grace enough to save us and grace enough to keep us
Heaven is our reward.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:15, 16
Remember how your story ends.
Life is hard, and God is good.
Setlist
WFC Lenexa + WFC Anywhere
Glorious Day- Kristian Stanfill
Revelation Song- Passion City
Same God- Elevation Worship
Too Good to Not Believe- Brandon Lake
WFC Speedway
Take You At Your Word- Cody Carnes
Revelation Song- Passion City
House of Miracles- Brandon Lake
See A Victory- Elevation Worship
Be sure to save our Spotify Worship Playlist, updated weekly with the upcoming Sunday’s set!