Sep 09 2008
Children of the Angry God?
This teaching is an excerpt from our Radio Antioch Podcast, Episode 2.
Who would want to be part of a church, if all you hear is condemnation? Sometimes when you go out to areas where there are not a lot of Christians, where missionaries are working, you will come across one of the local people. They will say, “ Oh, you are one of the children of the Angry God”. You can tell an old-school missionary has been there from one of the denominations that preaches a lot on sin and condemnation, and represent the Lord of Hosts as the Angry God. This is one of the worldviews that the world has of Christians, and it is often detrimental to sharing the gospel. Some groups in our society that are particularly bound up in a sinful lifestyle feel that the Christians actually hate them. Somewhere we got so focused on their sinful lifestyle that we forget to love the person, even if we hate what sin is doing to their life.
Now, I’m not preaching some watered down gospel here. Sin has separated us from God. The scripture says that in being separated from God, we can’t go to heaven. Now, I believe in heaven, and I believe in hell. And I believe that we all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, and that accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is the only way to be reconciled to God. But sometimes our church message is so focused on sin that even after we come to salvation we are feel condemned and full of guilt. The blood of Jesus has removed our guilt, but we still wear it like a noose around our neck!
God has at times been angry with his children, sometimes including those of us who are Christians. But think of this: If you know a family where all the children know is anger and reproach from their father, you would say that family is dysfunctional. Love should be the overriding bond of the family, even if discipline at times is needed. We all need a savior, and once we have come into the family, we should be living in love. I am not saying that we should ignore sin. If you are bound in a sin, let’s pray together so that you can get the victory over it and be free.
Even a baby Christian can quote John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. Jesus loved you so much that He gave His life that you could have forgiveness and eternal life. Instead of the “People of the Angry God” we should be the “People whom God Loves”
I pray that when people meet me, they would sense the excitement and Joy that I have in being in Christ. I want the Spirit in me to bubble over in an infectious way, like soda pop bursting from a shaken can! I want it to be obvious that I an not a Child of the Angry God, but rather a Child that has been adopted into the family of a Loving God and Father.
Photo Courtesy The Real Taiwan, Used with Permission.
Amen and again I say Amen, Also instead of a condemning church and the people are the church I feel we should build each other up. If more people started thinking positive and building each other up then there wouldn’t be so many people walking away from the church. That’s what we need more brothers and sisters to pray with one another. Thanks again for the encouraging words.
Hey, no worries. If you could, throw a link to the http://www.therealtaiwan.com site up there instead of the Flifkr one. Cheers…
This message would tie in well with the “good man” message about Barnabas. Imagine what it must be like to know that God on his throne looked down and had Luke say for Him “He (Barnabas) was a good man” Sort of like “Behold my servant Job….” Old Barnabas must be feeling pretty good. Every time someone reads that in the book of Acts, he can say, “they’re talking about me!!!” The thing is, we can feel the same thing. We know that God is no respecter of persons. Oh, I know, He’s not going to rewrite the Bible but we can know that we meet with that same approval. How? Simple. What was the main characteristic of Barnabas? Well ,as you know, his real name was Joseph but there was something about him that stood out so much that they gave him the name “Barnabas”, son of ENCOURAGEMENT. He was such an encourager. The apostle Paul didn’t get much acceptance at first, after all, he had persecuted the church with such zeal and there was every reason to be skeptical. Imagine what might have happened if Barnabas hadn’t showed up to say “I believe in you.” Without Barnabas’ encouragement he might have given up.
And we know the story of John Mark, how he wimped out on the first missionary journey, and how Paul said no way to going on another. But Barnabas, who went and established those churches throughout Asia Minor with Paul, who wanted to see them again as badly as Paul, said no to Paul and “I believe in you” to John Mark. Would Paul’s praise of John Mark later in life have come about without the encouragement of Barnabas? Remember the fairy tale of the prince who was turned into a frog and needed a princess to restore him to his princely manner. I know we don’t actually turn into frogs, but some days I do feel my tail dragging. In truth, even though we are royalty, kings and priests, sons and daughters of the King of Kings, I think we all have froggy days and what we need is for someone to believe in us, to encourage us, to restore us to our royal manner. This heart of provoking one another to good works, of loving one another, of encouraging one another is something we as Christians need to cultivate with much diligence. I am convinced that in doing so, we too can be convinced that He is looking down and saying of us “good man” “good woman”.
Anyway, I enjoyed the message.
Hey Roger,
Barnabas is my favorite Apostle because he had the character to enable others instead of holding on to all of the ministry. Where are all of the Barbabas’s today?
I say a lot of similar things, plus a few twists that most have not heard before on my sermon “The Church Without Walls”. It was recorded long before we began podcasting, but there is a link to the MP3 file in our audio archives:
http://www.antiochtabernacle.org/M102_MP3.html
When I get some time A may go back and re-publish some of these as podcasts for our newer audience.
Be well,
Dave