Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words sinners, sinful, and repent.
Reading
Luke 13:1–5—More sinful than others?
Optional Reading
Optional Reading Ruth 1:1-5
Keys for kids
- Bad things happen to people.
- That doesn’t mean they are terrible people.
- We all need to repent of our sin.
Questions
- What happened to Naomi in Ruth 1?
- What happened to these Galileans in Luke 13?
- What does Jesus say we must do?
Notes
When we read of people in the Bible who make poor decisions and then have bad things happen, we tend to think right away that those bad things happened to them because they made bad decisions. And that might be true. But we can’t know for sure!
It seems like Elimelech and Noami shouldn’t have gone to Moab in Ruth 1. It seems like their two sons shouldn’t have married Moabite women. So, we might conclude that’s why Elimelech and their two sons died. Here in Luke some people reported to Jesus terrible things that had happened to some Galileans. Based on Jesus’s answer to them, it seems like they thought this terrible thing had happened because the Galileans had done something bad.
Jesus twice said, bad things don’t just happen to the worst bad people. (And, except for Jesus, who was perfect, bad things don’t happen to good people, since all have sinned.) Sproul notes that the [right] question is not why did that tower fall on those eighteen innocent people, but, “Why didn’t it fall on my head?”
If something bad happens to you, ask God to show you if you have sinned leading up to this. If something bad happens to someone else, pray for them, don’t blame them for being bad. And repent of your sins, asking for God’s mercy to their, and your, lives.
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 32a, 119r
Prayer
- Pray to look kindly on those who have bad things happen.
- Pray for a specific application from yesterday's sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.