Righteous Anger

Did you know that the church is not called to be passive, we're called to be powerful? Let me say that again, the church of Jesus Christ is not called to be passive, we're called to be powerful. No, we're not called to endorse a political party, I got it, but we are called to stand up for what is right in this fallen world. I put in there what Martin Luther King Jr. said many years ago.

He said, we will have to repent in this generation, not for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Remember, he was fighting for equality, and it wasn't necessarily the bad people saying slanderous things, it was the good people saying nothing. Do you realize when you say nothing, you say something? The sin of omission, not going to say anything.

The church is just going to, and I get into discussions all the time with some of these post-modern emergent pastors, we're not going to mention abortion or gay marriage or anything like that. We're not going to upset women, we're just here to love and nurture, that's wonderful. But as little children are being murdered in the womb, and little kindergartners are being taught that it's okay to experiment with same-sex marriage, I have a problem with that, and so should you if you read the Word of God and take it seriously.

We don't come saying this in a spirit of hatred, we come saying this in a spirit of righteous anger. This is wrong. Somebody needs to start sounding the alarm and saying, not on my watch.

This is wrong. You can call me narrow-minded, bigoted, arrogant. This is wrong according to the Word of God, and the churches of America have got to start standing up for what is right.

The pulpits need to be aflame with righteousness again. Do you know that this used to be the conscience of the nation? Before Fox News, before the Internet, before the media, they would print sermons around our nation. What is the pulpit saying? That is the tone, that is the conscience of the nation.

What does God's Word say? How should we live? We set the tone for the nation. Now the church is mocked, now the church is ridiculed, now we have no power because we want to treat people like Christ, but we don't want to proclaim a difficult message. We want to restore people, but we don't talk about repentance.

We want society to change, but we want to allow the evils that are changing it. There is a disconnect here, folks. Where is the righteous anger? It is okay for pastors to be upset.

As a matter of fact, I am quite disappointed that there aren't enough. Pastors are not called to be popular, we are called to be confrontational. We are called to stir and to convict and to challenge.

As a loving father, if I see my child getting abused, I am like, oh, it is no big deal, here take my other one. That is what the church is doing. They don't want to challenge anybody and say, oh, it is all about the gospel, Shane.

That is right, but it doesn't end at the gospel, it starts at the gospel. Once the gospel changes your heart, now I am a new creation in Christ. Now what used to not upset me, now upsets me.

Now I have the mind and counsel of God. Now I see what His Word says. Now I see what sin is.

Now I see that these things are an abomination in the sight of God. And our nation rejects Him and rejects His Word. And it is time to bring righteous anger back to the pulpits again.

I don't care if it starts here, but it has got to start somewhere. I am concerned that a passive church that does not have righteous anger will accomplish nothing. They will become an irrelevant social club.

And all we come to do is get together and when is the next men's breakfast and lies are not being changed. We have to have righteous anger in the pulpits again.