10-01-2017 Kindness and Severity

You can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 11. And I'm going to read from verse 17 all the way down to verse 24. But our main focus is going to be on verse 20 to 24. Romans chapter 11, verse 17 through 24. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.

If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief. But you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.

For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.

For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more would these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? Let's pray. Abba Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege to call you our Father.

We've come to honor you. We've come to be fed. We come to meet you, Father God, that knowing you are our refuge. Many of us may be in the midst of entanglement, concerns. But we are in the midst of your love. We are in the midst of your love.

We are in the midst of your love. We are in the midst of your love. We are in the midst of your love. We are in the midst of your love. We are in the midst of your love. We are in the midst of your love. We are in the midst of your love.

In the King James, or I think maybe the New King James has the same word, it says "Behold." I don't know if you guys use that casually in conversations now. I've never heard it recently. Like "Behold." Right? "Behold this beauty. Behold this mountain." Nobody speaks like that today, so that's probably why it wasn't translated that way.

But I feel that the meaning behind this word, the word "Behold" captures it better. Because it's not simply to look or to think or to listen, but to take time to really deeply consider. So that word is used in the Bible in that kind of reference more than a thousand different times.

About twelve hundred, and depending on some translation, maybe a little bit more than twelve hundred times, where God constantly says, "Take time to consider, to look, to study, to meditate, to think upon these things." Because it has serious consequences. So after describing His mercy toward the nation of Israel, He now says, "But be careful." Because just the way that He judged the nation of Israel, you will also be judged if you do not continue in His kindness.

Kindness and the severity of God are intertwined. We kind of tend to dichotomize, saying, "Well, we see the kindness of God, the severity of God." It is not to be taken separately. In fact, Exodus chapter 34, verse 6 through 7, God says, "The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children, the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.'" You notice how He begins the introduction by saying He is gracious, He is slow to anger, abounding steadfast love, but in the same breath, He reminds them, "But He will by no means just sweep sin underneath the rug." The cross of Jesus Christ does not make sense.

If you do not understand the severity of God, if you do not understand the holiness of God, the gravity of sin and gravity of who God is, the cross just does not make sense. I've shared the gospel with people, and people, you know, one of the common objections that they have is, "Why go through all that drama of the Son of God living a holy life and being crucified?

Why doesn't God just say, 'I forgive you'? I mean, I do that. If somebody sins against me, I don't cut myself and bleed and send my only son to be beaten up, you know. I just say, 'You're forgiven.' Why doesn't God just say, 'You're forgiven'? What all that drama for?

If you don't understand the severity of God and the holiness of God, the cross does not make sense. Romans chapter 2, 4 through 6, he says, "Do you presume on the riches of the kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

But because of your hard-hearted and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgments will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his work." Do you see in that very short passage, verse 4, 5, and 6, how the severity of God and the kindness of God are vitally intertwined with one another?

It's not one over the other, but it is both. And every time God is revealed, whether it is in the gospel or the way he deals with the nation of Israel or even the way he deals with the church, it is both. As much as it makes us uncomfortable to consider and meditate and think upon the judgment of God, we'd rather talk about his grace and no matter what you did this week, God loves you unconditionally and we are uplifted and encouraged by that, and it may make us feel uncomfortable to think that there are consequences to our sin.

And we can easily just write that off as legalistic. That's not what God wants. God wants us to feel lifted and encouraged. In fact, I hear more and more churches advertising that if you come to our church, you're going to feel uplifted and encouraged. Now I don't know exactly what that means.

Maybe they mean that the truth is going to encourage them, that they're going to be pierced in their heart and it's going to bring them to repentance and that's going to uplift them. Maybe that's what they mean. But just by the language in itself, it's a false advertisement because not all of Scripture causes us to feel uplifted.

In fact, much of Scripture brings much weight, seriousness if we're walking away from God, a warning of judgment. When we think of grace and mercy, I don't think we can think of any better example than Jesus himself, who voluntarily gave himself to demonstrate the love of God to sinners who are blasphemous and was crucified voluntarily in order to die for very people who hated him.

So when we think of grace, there's no better example than Jesus Christ himself. Nobody gave the harshest example, nobody gave the most difficult description of God's judgment than Jesus himself. In Matthew 8.12, he says, he describes hell as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Mark chapter 9.48, he says, "Their worms shall not die." Matthew 3.12 and Mark 9.43, that hell will be unquenchable fire.

Matthew 25.41, eternal fire. Matthew 18.9, the hell of fire. Matthew 25.46, eternal punishment. Luke 16.24, anguish in flame. I've only given you small snippets of the things that Jesus said, but Jesus speaks more of God's judgment than he does about grace and salvation. To emphasize one without the other, you end up completely missing the gospel.

You end up completely missing God himself. Part of the reason why I believe that there's such superficiousness in our walk with God is because we have emphasized the kindness without understanding the severity. We've looked and examined carefully of God's kindness and grace, but we haven't looked carefully. I think most Christians at churches know of hell.

Most of us have heard of it. We've mentioned it, but almost always it's skimmed over. Even in the way that we share the gospel with non-Christians, it's like there's judgment coming, but there's grace. So we spend 90% of our conversations about how God forgives our sins, but very little understanding of the judgment that's coming.

See, the mistake of having kindness without understanding severity leads us to the false gospel. Do you remember when we were studying Revelation chapter 13, we were introduced to the red dragon, the Antichrist, and remember third, the second beast? Who was the second beast? Those of you guys in Bible study.

Dragon is Satan. The first beast is the Antichrist, and the third, the false prophet, right? Remember Satan or devil, his primary task, right, his goal is to usurp glory from God. But his primary task, his name basically means accuser. They describe him as the one who accuses the brethren before God.

So if you have any guilt in you, if you have any sin, he's the one who prosecutes before God and says, "He does not deserve your love. He needs to be punished. Death must reign in this life." That's Satan. He's the accuser. If you have severity without the kindness of God, that's all you get.

Satan has complete reign over your life, and when he accuses you, you have no remedy. And so there are a few people that I have met in a few instances, and I think when I went to Romania, that's kind of like what I felt. There was so much emphasis on judgment of God, there was no joy in the church.

There's people living in constant fear, and every once in a while, I'll have a conversation with somebody knocking on the door, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and every once in a while, I'll meet somebody who's really convicted and want to share with me, but most of the time, you can see in their eyes and the conversation we have that this is something they need to do.

Because if they don't do enough of it, they're not going to go to heaven. If they don't live right, if their good works don't add up to a certain point, they're not going to get to heaven. So they're constantly living in fear. They're not allowed to have assurance of salvation.

Same thing with the Muslims. They can't tell you that when they die, they're going to go to paradise. The only way to guarantee that they're going to go to paradise is to commit suicide through jihad. You see why so many young men, and even women, and even children, are willing to strap themselves and blow themselves up, instead of living their whole life trying to be good, and then at the end of their life, not know if they're going to make it to paradise or not.

You go and blow yourself up, instant. When you have severity without the kindness of God, you have satanic rule. But on the other end, when you have the kindness of God without the severity of God, you have what the false prophets are. Remember what the false prophets, their main work was?

Is to deceive. Deceive to bring attention to glorify the Antichrist. And their primary work is to bring awe. And it's not to bring fear, but to take away any fear that you have. And if you look at the Old Testament, the prophets come, and you had Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea, coming and warning that judgment is going to come.

The Syrians, the Babylonians, they're going to come and take you into captivity because you did not obey the law of God. And these false prophets would come, "No, they're liars. Why would God be angry with us?" He said, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." And that was the primary work of the prophets, the false prophets.

Constantly giving assurance, and he is not shaking their fist to get to God. He is attracting them with the lure of the world. And he's constantly telling lies. And making people feel comfortable, and just kind of gradually drifting toward the things of God, or not of God. Either way, whether you have severity without kindness, or kindness without severity, you will miss God.

That is not the gospel itself. See, number two, the fruit of God's severity is twofold. And I'm going to spend the rest of the time talking about these two things. The fruit of this severity of God is twofold. Why is it important? Other than the fact that that is exactly the way God has presented the truth to us.

Number one, the severity of God keeps us humble and in awe and fear of God. Look at verse 20. He says, "This is true, that the branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief. But you stand fast through faith, so do not become proud." In other words, they were broken off because of their unbelief, and if you continue, if you somehow do the same thing that they did, you will also be broken off.

So do not, do not be arrogant, but be in awe and fear of God. When you look at the Old Testament, the way that God introduces himself to the nation of Israel is not the kind of picture that you and I would see. You know, when I was younger, I had a picture of Jesus when he comes, and I imagined, right?

Because, you know, I was taught and I knew that Jesus was central to my faith, and so we talked a lot about his second coming and praying for his second coming, and so I imagined what it would be like when Jesus came. And the picture that I had in my head, and again, I was a young believer at that time, a picture I had of Jesus that I had was like my grandmother, you know?

My grandmother, I don't say my grandfather because I didn't know my grandfathers that well, but I have a very distinct picture of my grandmother. You know, she always had candy in her pocket, you know? She always had something, and she would never let us leave her house without something given us, whether it was some money, you know, or candy.

So I loved going to my grandparents' house. You know, you can mess up and do whatever you want, and you know, my parents are angry and they want to discipline us, and you run to grandma, and grandma will protect you. Because I could tell grandma had more authority than my parents, right?

That's the kind of picture I had of Jesus. Like when I die, I'm going to run to Jesus, and he's going to hug me, and maybe candy, I don't know what he has in his pocket, but he's going to give me something, and I'm just going to just absorb his presence.

And that's kind of like the picture I had of Christ. As a youth pastor, I remember I was going through the various attributes of God and landed on God's holiness. And so I just started studying. It's not like I haven't heard it before, but I really started just studying, and just going through this topic of holiness all through Genesis and Revelations.

And in the middle of the study, I realized there was an aspect of God that I completely did not understand. I knew it, but I didn't look into it. I wasn't beholding it. If you asked me, I could have told you, "Of course God is holy, holy, holy." I heard it before.

I was a Bible major undergrad. I went to seminary. But I didn't fully grasp, it didn't really hit me of what that meant. The gravity of who He is and how everything else that I understand about God, it stems from the foundation of His holiness. And even now, as I'm explaining this, there's no way I'm going to do it justice.

Because I've heard all of this before until, again, as a youth pastor, I was preparing a sermon, and it really, really rocked me. And I could tell you that ever since then, my view of Scripture, my view of God was never the same. If you remember when Moses encounters God for the very first time at the burning bush, his introduction to Moses wasn't, "I love you, and I heard your cry, so I'm going to come and I'm going to be merciful." The first thing he says to Moses, "Take off your sandals.

You're standing on holy ground." He tells Moses to have respect and awe in His presence. That's the first introduction. And when he says, "If I go and tell them they asked me, 'Who sent me?'" He says, "Tell them I AM has sent you." Now in and of itself, it doesn't mean anything.

But when you understand the meaning behind it, that God, there is no beginning, there's no end, He is. It illustrates His power, self-existence. In the word "I AM," it encapsulates His very essence of who He is. He's self-existing. So, He is powerful, holy, holy, holy. Now we understand, you know, the reason why everybody is so nervous right now because North Korea may have a nuclear bomb.

And we're not as scared of Kim Jong-un. We're not afraid of North Korean army. We're afraid that possibly that nuclear bomb may go off somewhere near where we are. We have a nuclear plant that's not too far from here. I mean, that, we should be more scared of that.

Remember when the earthquake hit in Japan and the devastation that they experienced? And even to this day, they haven't fully cleaned that thing up? We have a nuclear plant down here. And so it makes people nervous, not simply because it's evil, but because the power it contains. If some of that leaks out, we could die.

And the idea of being around something that powerful makes us nervous, fearful. If you're on a boat and you see clouds beginning to form and you're in the middle of nowhere, you don't automatically think, "Yes, rain, water." You don't think that. The first thing you think is, "Oh my gosh, if this comes down and it begins to swell up and these waves come, we might die." Our first reaction, just like the disciples when the storm came, they were nervous.

And these are professional fishermen. They were fearful. See, when God introduces Himself and He says, "Take off your sandals for you are standing on holy ground," and He says, "I am," in His very name, an introduction Himself, would have produced fear. That's exactly how God deliberately introduced Himself to the nation of Israel.

In fact, in Leviticus chapter 10, the first two priests who represents the nation of Israel are consumed with fire because they didn't follow the instructions exactly. These are not idol worshippers. They weren't blasphemers. They were Moses' nephews, Aaron's sons. The first two priests, in the context of serving God, are consumed by fire and God says to people who come, to my people, "I will show myself as holy." What do you think that did to the nation of Israel?

What do you think that did to the nation of Israel? They hear that the first two priests who approached God died. And these aren't just any people. These are Moses' nephews, Aaron, the priest's children, set apart to do this work and they're consumed and die. My guess is fear fell upon the nation of Israel.

Dread probably came upon the nation of Israel. Who would volunteer to be priests if that's what's going to happen to them? Do you think that was by accident that God did that? Do you think when God consumed these two men by fire that He was concerned, "If I do this, what if they're going to be afraid of me and they're afraid to come to me?" Do you think God was concerned about that or do you think God did that purposely?

We know the answer to that. That was God-ordained. God did that purposely. He introduced Himself as a holy, holy, holy God. He introduced Himself to the nation of Israel in His severity. That's what we see in the book of Genesis. He says, "If you eat of this tree, you shall surely die." And what happens?

They die. Their wickedness multiplies. They gather together. They build this tower and God is angry over their sin. What happens? He destroys the tower. These men come together and they're living in sin. The sin begins to increase. God becomes angry and He sends a flood and kills everybody except for the eight.

He is introduced to us all through the Scripture in His severity. Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, the disciples, John, every single one of these men who were confronted with God's presence did not run to Him and embrace Him. They fell on their face in fear. The weightiness of the presence of God is clear through Scripture.

Now why is this so important? Part of the reason why there is a nonchalant attitude in our walk with God is because we understand the severity of God, but we are not beholding the severity of God. Why our fellowship is so casual, why people can say, "You know, I committed to Jesus, but I'm not committed to His church." And when the Scripture clearly says, "You can't love God and hate your brothers.

The church is the body of Christ." Why we kind of pick and choose, "I love this doctrine, but I don't love that doctrine. I love this about Jesus, but I don't love that about Jesus." For all of Scripture, all of who He is, the whole of the cross is God revealed.

So everything that we know about who He is is founded upon knowing His severity. If we don't understand the weightiness of God's presence, the cross would never make any sense. And this is why hell is so difficult for our generation, because we have a sense of justice based upon what we think is right or wrong, never really understanding God, never really gazing upon and fully beholding His severity.

So we function under the assumption that God should be gracious to us. He should be gracious to us. He's God. He's supposed to. And as a result of that, the weightiness of our sin, the weightiness of salvation is shallow. But the second reason why the severity of God is so important for us is that severity of God propels us ultimately to the kindness of God.

There is a purpose for this other than just to reveal that this is who He is. In 21 and 22 it says, "For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God. Severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness.

Otherwise, you too will be cut off." He says the whole purpose of this revelation is that fear of God will propel us to the kindness of God. Let me say that again. It is the fear of God that propels us to the kindness of God. In Matthew 10, 28-33 it says, "And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." How does he say to combat fear? He said, "Combat fear with a greater fear of God. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground and apart from your father?

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows." So, everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

You see how the fear of God, the severity of God, and the kindness of God are so intertwined in what he says here? He doesn't just across the board, "Hey, you know, if you sin, God loves you, and you don't need to fear." He says, "No, do not fear them, but fear me." How do we combat fear?

I mean, so much of the decisions that we make in life is because of some kind of fear. I remember when I was a, when I first went to Magic Mountain, again, I think I forget if I was in junior high school or high school, I don't really like roller coasters, you know.

I tell people because it gives me a headache, but the reality is I don't like the feeling of dying, you know what I mean? So some of you guys like it, but I don't like it. And so when I was in high school, you know, they would like, my friends would always want to go, and so we'd go, mainly because I don't want to be called the worst, you know what I mean?

So I'm afraid what they're going to think if I don't go, because I've always, you know, like, they always, ever since I was young, they always said that I have too much testosterone, and I'm like, I'm a guy, you know, and so, like, they just don't think, like, "Oh, Peter's going to be afraid of roller coaster." Inwardly, I don't like it, you know.

I want to live. So I go, but I never tell anybody. I don't like being on roller coasters, but I would get on it anyway, you know? And at the end of the day, like, I'm the happiest guy, because I did it, and nobody found out. I'm telling, publicly telling you now, but, you know.

And then I became a youth pastor, and sure enough, every year, somebody has a bright idea we have to go to Magic Mountain, and so we would go to Magic Mountain, and it just happens my wife likes roller coasters, so, you know, I can't be a wuss in front of her, right?

So I'm going to lose my authority in the home. So, you know, I went, and I did what I needed to do, but inwardly, I never like roller coasters, right? And fear of man, what my friends would think, what my youth group kids would think, and what my wife would think, you know, I kept that all bottled up until today.

You know, I kept that all bottled up, and I made sure nobody found out, but, you know, there's a lot of things that, because of fear of man. You dress a certain way, you speak a certain way, you do certain things because of fear of man, right? How much of our life is driven by fear of what will they think if I don't have this?

What will they think if I don't go to this school? What will they think if I don't make this kind of money? How much of our temptation toward the world is driven by fear, some kind of fear? Maybe not fear of man, but fear of something else. See, the severity of God propels us.

It overcomes all other fears. He says, if you want to conquer the fear of man, don't fear these people. He says, fear God. Fear God who has control over your flesh and your soul. And to conquer fear, because there's a greater God, and it gives us courage to live in obedience, because it conquers all the other fears.

In verse 23, it says, even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree?

He said, consider the severity of God, because the severity of God pushes you toward the kindness of God. We cling to the kindness of God, not because we fear the world. The Scripture tells us primarily we were saved from God, not from Satan, not from this bad world. The wrath of God was raining upon mankind, so when He came, He consumed wrath.

Jesus consumed wrath upon Himself to save us from God's wrath. The severity of God, beholding the severity of God, ultimately propels us to cling to the kindness of God. That's why Philippians 2.12, it says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. In a generation where we've only been told that the kindness of God, that verse doesn't make a lot of sense.

We kind of read it, don't have an answer for it, so we just kind of swing, you know, pass by, but we don't know what it means. That's exactly what it means, to live out your Christian life with fear and trembling. So when we see ourselves drifting away from God, there should be fear and trembling.

When we see ourselves compromising in sin, there should be fear and trembling. When we see ourselves living in disobedience and drifting away from obedience, God desires us to have fear and trembling, to propel us to persevere in His kindness. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 18.8, if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, it is better that you enter life maimed or lame than the two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire.

That's how severe He wants us to fear and tremble. Not to live in fear of judgment, but that fear would push us toward the kindness of God. Hebrews chapter 12.4, He says, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." How easily we compromise.

How easily we say, "Well, where do we draw the line?" And we use these broad terms to excuse all kinds of sin in our lives, and whenever we feel any kind of guilt, we say, "Well, that's legalism. That's judgmentalism." And yet, the Scripture continues to tell us to live out with fear and trembling.

Let me conclude with reading this passage, because I believe Hebrews chapter 12.18-29 will illustrate and summarize this passage well. So Hebrews chapter 12.18-29. Okay. Is all the verses here? There's a bottom portion of that. Okay, there you go. "For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and a darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them.

For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I tremble with fear.'" Let me stop right there. He says, "We did not come to that mountain." This mountain he's talking about, it's not a satanic mountain.

This is a mountain where God gave the commandments. God told Moses to come. God told them to tremble. Everything that Moses felt was what God made him feel. The fear that Israel had when Moses came down just because of the glimpse of God's glory that was shining off of his face, they were terrified.

Asked him to veil his face and go into a tent. That was all done by God. The author says, "But we did not come to that mountain." That was the old covenant. In verse 22, he says, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in the festal gatherings, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous that made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkle of blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." He says, "What they had in the old covenant was what Moses, Israel experienced, and that was the severity of God." Now if we stop with that only, Satan would have absolute control.

He would have absolute sovereign reign because he's the accuser of brothers. And you have any sin in you, you're guilty under judgment of God, living in fear and trembling. But he said, "You did not come to that mountain. We're of the new covenant." And he describes this new covenant in Mount Zion where we are free from our sins.

We have this festal gathering. We're called children of God. We have been made righteous, and we have been made perfect by the perfect mediator, Jesus Christ. So now if we stop in verse 24, he said, "Well, we're not under the old covenant, but we're under the new covenant. So therefore, we're no longer under condemnation, so we can live free." But that's the mistake.

So if we stop in verse 24, we don't understand the full impact of what he's saying. And in order to understand the totality, you have to understand, you have to read the rest of it with Psalm verse 25. He says, "See that you do not refuse him who is speaking." He's talking about present tense.

"If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised yet once more, 'I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.'" Those of you who've been studying through Revelation with us, you know exactly what we mean.

The judgment is going to shake all of creation. This phrase, "yet once more," indicates a removal of things that are shaken, that is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. "Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." See, verse 18 to 21 is description of the old covenant.

Verse 22 through 24 is a description of our sins being taken away. Verse 25 through 29 is the application of the gospel. And the application of the gospel is, if God, who was severe in the old covenant, and yet we have been given this tremendous mercy, how much guiltier would we be for those who have been given so much to ignore and neglect and to simply trample on this salvation?

So the application in the new covenant is that we would offer to God acceptable worship with reverence. The word here is "all," but the word "all" is also translated in other translations to "fear," for our God is a consuming fire. This is the God that we come to worship every Sunday.

Not grandma with candy in her pocket. Not to say that God is not gentle. Not to say that God is not loving and gracious. All of that is true. But if we pick and choose that these are the things that I like, and that we minimize the things that God has revealed about Himself, it does affect the way we live.

It does affect the way we see sin. It affects the way we practice love. It affects the way we practice church. It affects the way that we see the world and how we live in this world. It affects the way we think. It affects the way we pursue things.

It affects our values. It affects our hope. And ultimately may affect our eternity. Behold, look, see, examine, study, meditate on the kindness and the severity of God that we may persevere in His kindness. Let's pray. Again, we want to invite you to take some time to come before the Lord in prayer.

Have we been walking casually, lukewarm in our hearts, but not sensing any urgency to change? Drifting, allowing bitterness and anger and hatred, not seeing the damage that it's doing in my heart? Let's take some time to come before the Lord in honest prayer as our worship team leads

10-01-2017 Kindness and Severity

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