Why Did God Let It Happen?

Why Did God Let It Happen?

Scripture References

• Matthew 27:46
• John 3:16
• Revelation 21:4

Overview

The message faces the raw question every hurting heart eventually asks: “If God is good, why did He let this happen?” Using Scripture, honest lament, and everyday illustrations, the pastor argues that Christianity alone makes sense of, gives meaning to, and ultimately offers a solution for evil and suffering. Love requires choice; choice makes sin possible; sin brings pain—yet God entered that pain in Jesus and promises a future where suffering ends.

Main Points

The Honest Question: “God, Are You Really Good?”

• Opening call-and-response:

  “God is good.” – “All the time.”
  Yet many secretly doubt it when life hurts.

• Common flashpoints: job loss, divorce, betrayal, chronic illness, global tragedies.
• Epicurus’ ancient logic: if God can’t stop evil He isn’t all-powerful; if He won’t, He isn’t all-good; so why does evil exist?

Scripture Never Hides Suffering

• Bible is filled with anguished voices: Jeremiah (the weeping prophet), David (“Are You listening?”), John the Baptist awaiting execution, and Asaph complaining that the wicked prosper.
• Story: Asaph, a worship leader and prophet, almost lost faith when life seemed unfair (quoted “Does the Most High even know?”).

Love Requires Choice; Choice Makes Evil Possible

• Theological term: free will—the ability to choose love or hate, right or wrong.
• God wanted relationship, not robots or rocks, so He granted real choice.
• Removing all evil would require removing our freedom—or removing us.

The Presence of Evil Does Not Disprove God

• Without God there is no fixed moral reference; calling something “evil” assumes an authority above human opinion.
  Illustration: Two kids fighting can only appeal to “right” when parents (authority) exist.
• Therefore the very instinct to call suffering “wrong” points back to a moral Law-giver.

Pain Does Not Equal Lack of Love

• Illustrations:
  • Surgery hurts but aims at healing.
  • A physical therapist stretches and pounds to bring recovery.
  • Loving parents discipline children for their good.
• Suffering can be evidence of love working toward something better.

The Only Truly “Good” Person Chose to Suffer

• Humanity is not basically good; every heart is deceitful and sinful.
• Jesus—alone sinless—volunteered to absorb our sin, experiencing betrayal, torture, the cross, and separation from the Father.
• Quoting Matthew 27:46, Jesus voiced our own cry: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

Something Better Is Coming

• John 3:16 reveals the motive—God so loved that He gave.
• The cross leads to resurrection; loss can lead to victory; bondage can lead to freedom.
• Revelation 21:4 promises a day with no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain.
• We live in the “not-there-yet” tension, but eternal restoration is guaranteed.

Walking With God in the “Not Yet”

• Personal examples: grieving parents, an abused little girl, a young mother’s death, two staff pastors lost this year—situations with no easy answers.
• Over time, believers testify that sustained intimacy with God proves His faithfulness even when a single moment feels hopeless.
• Asaph’s turnaround: once he “entered the sanctuary of God,” he declared, “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Key Truths

• Free will makes both authentic love and authentic evil possible.
• The existence of objective evil actually suggests, not refutes, a moral God.
• Pain can coexist with—and even flow from—deep love and redemptive purpose.
• Jesus is the only innocent sufferer; His voluntary death is God’s ultimate answer to evil.
• Believers live between present pain and future glory where suffering will cease.

Response

• Bring your hardest questions to God; He can handle honest doubt.
• Choose to love and trust Jesus, using the same free will that can choose sin.
• Seek God’s presence—“enter the sanctuary”—when circumstances don’t make sense.
• Extend compassionate prayer, presence, and help to those who suffer.
• Anchor hope in the promised future where God wipes every tear.

Closing

Life in a broken world often makes God’s goodness feel distant, yet the cross proves His love and the empty tomb proves His power. Evil and suffering are central—not contrary—to the biblical story, and Christianity alone offers a final, tear-wiping hope. Until that day, we echo the confession that opened the service:

“God is good … all the time.”

Prayer

The pastor prayed for those in pain, asking God to reveal His nearness, supply miracles, provision, healing, restoration, and a peace that “goes beyond our human ability to understand.” He also led a salvation prayer in which responders surrendered to Jesus, asked forgiveness, received the Spirit, and committed to walk in and share God’s goodness.