Why did God create us?
In smaller groups, look for the answers to these questions in your assigned passage:
1. Why did God decide to create us?
2. What were we created for?
3. How did God create us?
Passages: Psalm 33:6-11, Ephesians 1:3-6, Acts 17:24-28
1. Not reasons God created us:
He was bored
He was lonely
He needed people to make him feel good by praising him
Acts 17:24-25 – The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of the universe and does not live in temples made by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, for he himself has given us life and breath and everything else.
We say that God is self-sufficient – in need of nothing and not needing others
If God is self-sufficient, he doesn’t need people.
That doesn’t mean, though, that people have no value. Just the opposite – our value comes from the fact that God loved us enough to create us.
Ex: Two instances about my dad and me
My dad owned a vegetable garden and would often need my help in the summertime. I didn’t like going and looked for excuses to get out of it. They even sometimes paid us to be there.
My dad invited me on a 7-hour car trip across the state when I was in 7th grade, to accompany him to a convention he was attending. He didn’t need me along, but he wanted me there.
Which of these is more like the relationship between God & us?
The car trip across the state is. God doesn’t need us to get his work done. That would make us equals in a sense, and allow us to bargain with God. We also develop a wrong attitude toward God – that our service is all he wants. Instead, God delights in just being with us.
You are not loved by God because you are valuable – You are valuable because you are loved by God!
2. So – why did God decide to create us?
Because it was his will (his decision), and his nature (he’s just being himself)
Ex: a creative person – poet, playwrite, artist – they often just create things, regardless of whether anyone will see it, hear it, or give them money for it. It’s just “who they are”. They decide to make something, and they do it.
3. But, there’s a difference between what God creates & what man creates.
What God created came from nothing…whatever man created (bikes, computers, milkshakes even!) came from the raw parts that were already there.
So, we can still thank God for things that came from man’s imagination & hands.
4. Did God create actions?
Ex: running? No, but he gave us the equipment and ability to run.
This is important: how we use things, how we act – are the result of human decisions.
5. All created things are “good”, but can be used for right/wrong purposes
Gen. 1, 1 Tim. 4:4 say everything God created is “good”
So what about – fire? (Good for some purposes, bad for others) water? (good when you’re thirsty or dirty, harmful in floods and shipwrecks) spiders? (a nuisance, some people are scared of them; but, they serve a valuable purpose in nature) sharks? (same as spiders – bad when they attack people, good for the ocean’s ecosystem)
If God deserves thanks for the good, does he deserve blame for the bad? No – sometimes good things get used in bad ways…but this is the result of decisions
Next Week: Why does God allow these bad things to happen?
