Why do Bad Thing Happen
Notes
Transcript
Tun your Bibles to Genesis 50:19-21
Introduction:
There is a man standing in front of his burned-down home, looking at his neighbor’s house that remained untouched. The man said, “God was really with my neighbor,” and then he paused, looked at the ruins of his home, and added, “I guess God doesn’t care about me.” It’s easy to look at situations like this and assume that God’s favor is only on those who didn’t lose everything. It’s natural to ask, “What kind of God would allow people to lose homes and lives in a situation like this?” Tragedies often lead us to question God.
Or even on your level the things you that “hurt you”.....
Bullying
Divorce
Parents arguing
Sickness // Cancer
Death of a love one or friend
Things you see online and on the news.
“Some of you have gone through really hard things, or you know someone who has. You might wonder, ‘If God is good and powerful, why didn’t He stop this?’ That is an honest question, and God is not scared of your questions or your feelings. The Bible shows that we live in a broken world where people make hurtful choices, but it also shows that God is still in control and can bring real good even out of really bad situations.”
Genesis 50:19-21 and Romans 8:28 together give a clear, hopeful way to explain how bad things happen but God can use it for good.
Please stand in the reading of God’s word
‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: “I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.” ’ Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.
Let us pray.
As we looked at in reading Genesis 50:17-22 we could see what Joseph went through .
He did not choose to be born when he was born he did not choose the fact that his brothers decided to treat him this way . It happened, things happen.
People want to say now why would God who loves his people allow these things to happen . I mean Joseph is even probably questioning his mind why are you guys treating her to me this way . When something doesn’t go our way if we want to blame someone we want to blame God because he didn’t provide or he didn’t take care or he didn’t do whatever . the things happened in this world because of sin because we live in a sin cursed world .
You can not make God the author of sin, but God can bring good from bad. Let us look at Joseph’s life.
The evil we see.
The world is fallen: because of sin, life is hard, bodies break, people die, and creation itself is “cursed” with things like pain, danger, and disasters.
People have free will: God allows people to choose; when they choose sin, their actions hurt themselves and often innocent people too (like a drunk driver harming others).
Bad things are truly bad, not pretend-good, but they are never out of God’s control or beyond His ability to use for good.
As we see in the text..…
God can use what others mean for evil to accomplish His good plan in and through His people
The life of Joseph, we get to see the bad and the good
Family and background
Family and background
Joseph as a youth in his family:
“This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers… and he brought their father a bad report about them.”
This is the account of Jacob.
Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, was taking care of the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.
His father’s special love and the special robe:
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him.
His brothers’ growing attitude (right before the mistreatment):
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated Joseph and were not able to speak to him kindly.
Joseph was treated terribly by his brothers because they were jealous of him and hated the special love their father showed him.
They bullied him by mocking his dreams, attacking him, throwing him into a pit, and then selling him as a slave to traders going to Egypt.
In Egypt, Joseph went through more hard things, but God was with him and eventually raised him up to be second-in-command, helping save many people from a huge famine.
Joseph could be like, I am done, I do not want to do this anymore
He chose to continue to follow God!
Then thing began to change
Then ten brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt.
So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
Now Joseph was the ruler over the land; he was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
God is still sovereign: even when people choose evil, God remains in control and can weave even those choices into His larger plan, like He did with Joseph.
The reminder at the end of Genesis
Before your father died he commanded: This story was probably made up. They didn’t feel they had the moral right to ask Joseph for mercy, since they sinned against him so greatly. So they put the request for mercy in the mouth of their honored and dead father.
Fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants”: They backed up their plea for mercy with a genuine display of humility.
Am I in the place of God: Joseph first understood he was not in the place of God.
It wasn’t his job to bring retribution upon his brothers.
If the LORD chose to punish them, He would have to find an instrument other than Joseph.
As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good: Joseph did not romanticize the wrong his brothers did. He plainly said, “You meant evil against me.” Although this was true, it was not the greatest truth. The greatest truth was “God meant it for good.”
Every Christian should be able to see the overarching and overruling hand of God in their life; to know that no matter what evil man brings against us, God can use it for good.
If this large family did not come to Egypt and live, it would have perished in the famine. Had the family barely survived, it would have assimilated into the Canaanite tribes surrounding it. Only by coming to Egypt could they be preserved and grow into a distinct nation.
As said before, if Joseph’s brothers never sold him to the Midianites, then Joseph would never have gone to Egypt.
If Joseph never went to Egypt, he would never have been sold to Potiphar.
If Joseph was never sold to Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife would never have falsely accused him
If Potiphar’s wife never falsely accused Joseph , then Joseph would never have been put in prison.
If Joseph was never put in prison, he would have never met the baker and butler of Pharaoh.
If Joseph never met the baker and butler of Pharaoh, he would have never interpreted their dreams.
If Joseph never interpreted their dreams, he would have never interpreted Pharaoh’s dream.
If Joseph never interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he never would have become prime minister, second in Egypt only to Pharaoh.
If Joseph never became prime minister, he never would have wisely prepared for the terrible famine to come.
If Joseph never wisely prepared for the terrible famine, then his family back in Canaan would have died in the famine.
If Joseph’s family back in Canaan died in the famine, then the Messiah could not have come from a dead family.
If the Messiah did not come forth, then Jesus never came.
If Jesus never came, then we are all dead in our sins and without hope in this world.
We are grateful for God’s great and wise plan
We can always say what if.....
My dad dying - cancer was not my choice but ultimately resulted in the salvation of my uncle
God’s good is bigger than our moment
Many times we only see what we are in. When things happen to us, we have a very small view of what we see.
We see the accident
We see the behaviors of others and how it affects others
Remember: You can not make God the author of sin, but God can bring good from bad.
We might not even understand the why.
The questions that may even be asked.....
“How can I stay close to God in this?”
“How might God use this to grow my faith or help someone else?”
God can turn the worst things people do into real good in His bigger plan.
Jason Lovins
People’s choices can be jealous, selfish, or cruel; hurt is real (family drama, gossip, bullying, rejection).
How we then respond makes a difference. How can the hurt we have be turned into good?
God is aiming at our ultimate good: Romans 8:28 shows that the “good” is mainly making believers more like Christ and bringing them to future glory, not guaranteeing an easy life now.
Many critics point out that earthquakes, tsunamis, childhood cancers, and other “natural evils” are not obviously caused by human choices, so the free will defense seems to leave these unexplained.
What they do not understand that God created a perfect place but sin corrupted it.
Just like all of you here tonight - you have the free will to make decisions, knowing or not knowing the outcome.
The best news is that God sent His only Son to die for us on the cross, to shed his blood for our sins. He was buried, and three days later rose up from the grave. 1 Corinthians 15:57 “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
When we place our faith in Jesus, trust him , repent of our sins, we are now saved and that changes everything as we now trust him and knowing that no matter what comes our way we can trust him, lean on Him. and have faith and rest on Romans 8:28 .
And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,
Three key words to explain Romans 8:28
All things – Not just church stuff or happy moments; God is at work in good days, bad days, mistakes, and hurts.
Work together – Like ingredients in a recipe that taste bad by themselves (flour, raw egg) but make something good when mixed and baked, God mixes the pieces of our lives into a good outcome. Baking takes time - not like TV shows that put it in and take it out and it is done.
For good – “Good” means God’s kind of good: helping us trust Him more, become more like Jesus, and be part of His plan, not just “I get what I want.”
Romans 8:28 means that God is so powerful and so loving that He can take every single thing that happens to His children—even the really hard, painful stuff—and use it as part of a good plan.
It does not say everything that happens is good, or that life will always feel good, but that God is working in and through all of it for the good of those who love Him.
We choose to trust that God sees a bigger picture, even when we cannot.
But God is still in control
But God is still in control
God did not cause their sin, but He was never out of control; He wove their evil choices into His good plan.
God used Joseph’s suffering to save many lives during the famine and to rescue the very family that hurt him.
God’s “good” is often bigger and longer-term than comfort right now; He is saving, shaping, and using His people.
When life is confusing—parents fighting, friends turning on you, anxiety, disappointment—you can know two things at the same time: “This really hurts” and “God is still working for my good.”
Response time:
Name one hurt or unfair situation -
Pray: “God, this was meant for evil, but I trust You can use it for good. Help me trust You and move toward forgiveness.”
Ask God to give them “50:20 vision” this week—to see you through the pain and struggle and realize that “but God meant it for good.”
