Mailing Address: PO Box 797 Molalla, OR 97038 Phone: 503-829-5101 Fax: 503-829-9502 Pastor Dale Satrum Intro: Questions I ve Always Wanted To Ask God If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil? (Part 2) Evil Exists Because Of Mankind s Choice From the beginning, God has given us the freedom to choose good or evil. It all started with Adam and Eve. Rom. 5:12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (NLT) Duet. 30:19-20 Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses Oh that you would choose life (NLT) Because every person is infected with sin, I experience these negative consequences from 2 sources. Not everyone chooses life! A. I can experience negative consequences because of my own choices Gal. 6:7-8 You always reap what you sow! Those who live only to satisfy their sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death (NLT) 1. My own sinful choices result in negative consequences in my life. I bring them on myself. I reap what I ve sown! I can be my own worst enemy! 2. When I m selfish I have relational consequences no deposits in the love bank. (Holding on to unforgiveness / saying hurtful things When I m rebellious against the law, I have legal consequences (speeding cheating on taxes majority of Americans do! When I m materialistic and max out my credit card, I have financial consequences. When I neglect my body s health with overindulgence, drugs, alcohol, overeating, poor diet and exercise - I have physical consequences. 3. If we re really honest with ourselves, many of the negative / painful things we experience in this life are a direct result of choices we ve made! Then, we have a tendency to blame God for the consequences in our lives. (As if God was supposed to stop us.) No, He gives us freedom Page 1
4. So why does evil / pain exist? Many times I choose it / create it! B. I can experience negative consequences because of other s choices 1. Not only do we have the freedom to choose evil, but others do as well. Other people s wrong choices affect me. How many of you have been affected by wrong choices of other people? We all have been! Ps. 69:4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs on my head Vs 29 - I am suffering and in pain (NLT) 2. God allows people the freedom to choose evil. They can choose to steal / murder / drink and drive / abuse others / the powerful can take advantage of the weak / the rich can rob the poor / This is why we have wars genocide and other horrible things. / Terrorism 3. Some say, If God is so good and loving then why doesn t He stop these people from doing these terrible things! Is He unable to? God is able, He simply won t! WHY? 4. God will not take away people s choice. If God took away their ability to choose evil, He d have to take yours away too! WHY? Because some things you choose are evil as well to God! 5. Evil exists because God has given mankind the ability to choose. We choose evil and others choose evil and we all suffer the effects from it. I. Evil Exists Because Of Satan s Choice Rev. 12:7-9 Then there was war in heaven. Michael and the angels fought the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle and was forced out of heaven. This great dragon the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. (NLT) A. I experience evil because I have an evil enemy 1. The Bible is very clear that the Devil is a literal being that exists. He is not made up / make believe / but actually a fallen angel that rebelled against God long ago and has other angels that followed him in his rebellion. 2. Apparently, long ago around the time of creation, the angels were given a one time choice. Satan and many other angels chose to rebel. 3. Satan and his angels not only hate God, they hate the people made in God s image. We are designed to reflect our Creator s nature / His heart / His love and grace. We are designed for relationship with God! 4. Satan and his angels are against everything God is for. They purposely do all they can to influence the world for evil. We really do have a literal evil enemy. Page 2
5. God will eventually deal with Satan and his angels once for all at a later time. In the meantime, God is allowing a certain level of activity and influence in this world. B. I experience evil because there is a spiritual war Where is it? the one deceiving the whole world 1. Satan s main weapon is one of deception. He is trying to get as many people as possible to believe in everything else BUT God! He s not trying to get people to worship him. He s just trying to keep people from worshipping God. (He doesn t care what you believe in.) 2. Satan is constantly trying to keep people from seeing the truth! He s pretty successful at it. Today, more then ever, most people believe truth is relative! No absolute truth / No absolute way / How narrow minded!!! 3. OR, he can get people so fanatical about the wrong thing they are willing to blow themselves up, thinking they are doing it for God. 4. We need to remember that we live in a war zone. There is a spiritual war going on for the lives of people and Satan will use whatever means are at his disposal. Pain and discomfort is part of war! 5. Satan wants to destroy people who are made in the image of God. I Peter 5:8 Be careful! Watch out for the attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. (NLT) 6. I don t share this with you to make you afraid. I share this with you to make you aware. We can t blame everything negative / painful / evil on Satan. BUT, his activity is real. 7. Since his primary activity is deception, our primary weapon is truth. If we don t know the truth of God s word, we will experience even more pain in this life. (WHY? Because we re being deceived!) II. Evil Exists Because Of A Fallen Environment Gen. 3:17 Cursed is the ground because of you (NASB) Rom. 8:20-21 everything on earth was subjected to God s curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. (NLT) A. We live in an environment that is effected by sin 1. Sin actually affects the created / physical world. This world is dying. It s cursed because of sin. This world experiences death and decay environmentally. Page 3
2. This is not the way God created the planet. It is a result of sin entering God s creation. Since the environment is effected by sin, bad things happen in this world. 3. God did not create a world where hurricanes destroy entire states / where tsunamis kill 100 s of thousands / where drought ravages entire countries / where disease and famine touch many parts of the globe. 4. This environment does not operate the way God originally intended it. It is affected by sin; it s affected by the curse. 5. Can t God stop these things? Of course, but He won t. WHY? It s a consequence of sin infecting His creation. Sin results in death / decay. C. This fallen environment affects me personally Even if we don t live in an area that sees natural disasters very often, we still experience the effects of death and decay. 1. It affects our physical bodies: We age / we get older / things don t work as well / body parts begin to ache / we can get sick ( I ve been on anti-biotics ) AND it s impossible to stop this process. (I m fighting this post 40 thing!) 2. It affects our physical property (where we live) I love to work outside in my yard. No matter how many weeds I pull or spray, those suckers keep growing. It requires continual effort! (Moles are also a result of sin I m sure!!!) 3. It affects us financially. Anytime there is a disaster somewhere, we usually see it reflected in how much we are paying. 4. Bad things happen in a fallen environment. III. Evil Continues To Exist To Grow Our Faith Even though evil / pain / trials were never part of God s original plan, He now uses them to accomplish good things in and through us. A. God uses our trials to produce maturity Rom. 5:3-4 We can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know they are good for us they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us (NLT) 1. Now, none of us would sign up for this, but it is true. Some of the greatest life lessons, some of the greatest times of personal growth, have come out of times with the most pain. 2. There are just certain qualities / certain perspectives that God wanted me to embody that would have been impossible without the experience of pain galvanizing these things in me. (Heat purifies!) 3. There are certain things about God that I would have never known or experienced without pain. 4. Watching World News Tuesday night young man who lost both legs Page 4
and arm at 14 fell asleep on train track alcohol, partying involved Now in early 20 s Amazing attitude speaks over country Would you want your legs back? No, because I wouldn t be the person I am today B. God uses our weaknesses to demonstrate His power II Cor. 4:7 But this precious treasure this light and power that now shines within us is held in perishable containers, that is, our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and not our own. (NLT) 1. When life overwhelms us with circumstances, it is an opportunity for us to experience the power of God in our lives. Often, we are not willing to go to God and seek His power until we are confronted with our absolute weakness. 2. This world has a way of showing us just how weak we really are and just how much we really need God. C. God uses our victory as a testimony to the world So that everyone can see (NLT) 1. Everyone has to live in a world that is filled evil and pain. What s different about a believer is they have the power of the Lord Jesus in them. So, even though we face the same stuff, we handle it differently. 2. Often, our greatest testimony to a lost world is not the fact that our lives have no problems. It s the fact that we have many of the same problems as everyone else, but we experience God s power through them. 3. We face these issues with an assurance in the Lord s provision. People observe our forgiveness when wronged / observe our calm in the midst of the storms / observe our hope when others have despair. 4. Evil / pain in this life provides tremendous opportunities for us to live out the reality of Jesus Christ as a testimony to others. This is what attracts people Jesus! I want some of what you have! Evil / pain / problems / negative circumstances are part of our existence in this world. Instead of blaming God for these tings, we need to run to God with these things. What have you been doing? Are you allowing God to change you? Are you allowing God to empower you? (OR are you still trying to do it alone? Are you allowing God to use your life to show others He s real? Most of us are experiencing something painful / negative in our lives (big or small from ourselves others environment or from the enemy. What are you doing with it? Page 5
Heb. 4:16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. (NLT) Page 6