Emotions of God Chapel
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When I was in high school I had a
British Literature teacher who was quite skeptical of the Christian faith. I
remember one time as we went over the Puritan writers she drew three circular
faces on the board: one angry, one stern, one happy. She used these to describe
the way Christians talked about God over the past several hundred years. I
remember being offended at her obvious contempt. Now, I understand at bit of
her confusion regarding how we interpret God’s emotions in the Bible.
Throughout
the church’s history, we tend to emphasize the aspects of God’s emotions we are
most comfortable with. The Bible talks about God having the emotions of love,
repentance, compassion, indignation, hatred, grief, anger, patience,
long-suffering, joy and pretty much every other emotion experienced by a human.
The difficulty comes in that our understanding of how God feels about us and
about the people around us affects how we feel about ourselves and the people
around us. Understanding how God feels is important. The question then becomes:
is God mostly mad, mostly sad, or mostly glad? Our answer to that simple
question makes a huge difference in how we interact with our Heavenly Father.
Take a moment and reflect on how God thinks of the world. What are some of the first thoughts which come to mind? What is God feeling right now? What emotion is he feeling most? Is he angry at the injustice and rebellion of humanity? Does he weep over the shedding of innocent blood and the church’s seeming inability to get it right? Does he have a belly laugh as he rejoices over his creation and delights in us as his children and bride even though we are weak and immature?
In the American church, we often have an unspoken answer to that question. It’s hard not to pick it up. God is mad and sad. But the truth of Scripture is that God’s emotions are mostly glad. It’s not an accident that when we worship a God who is mostly angry or cheerless we end up with a church which is mostly mad or joyless.
[slide]
Psalm 16:8-11
8 I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, [c]
nor will you let your Holy One [d] see decay.
11 You have made [e] known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Notice those last two lines. Another translation says “In your presence is the fullness of joy”. David isn’t just talking about a really good church service. He’s talking about what God’s presence is actually like. In heaven, the throne room of God is a joyful place. Holy? – yes. A place of laughter? – absolutely. Why? Because joy and gladness are who God is. Everything in heaven lines up with God’s character. In addition, remember, that this is actually a messianic psalm. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s about Jesus. Which means it is Jesus who says to the Father: “in your presence is fullness of joy.” That would mean Jesus is full of joy. Cant you just picture Jesus telling jokes to the Holy Spirit?
[slide]
Psalm 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.
In Psalm 45 we have another Messianic Psalm in which Jesus is anointed with the oil of gladness. Notice that we have 3 different emotions happening in the same verse: love, hate, joy. The issue is not whether God is ever angry. Let’s take this little rabbit trail for a moment. If someone abused my children and I didn’t get angry about it I’d be a terrible Dad. It would mean I didn’t love my children. The opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is apathy and indifference. If God didn’t hate things, he’d be a terrible Father.
The Bible is very clear that the Father is at war with whatever gets in the way of his love for us. The issue is whether his main emotion is anger or sadness and whether he relates to us as his children with those as his primary emotions. Believing those lies affects how we relate to our joyful God. He is a God of grinning and laughter.
I want to make this point very clear. I’m going to do it using mostly Old Testament scriptures because that is often where we perceive God being angry or disappointed.
[slide]
Deut 30:9 “The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers,”
Zeph 3:17 “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
[slide]
Is 62:4,5 “4 …for the LORD will take delight in you, 5 …as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
John 17:23 “…May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
[slide]
Romans 2:4 “god’s kindness leads you toward repentance”
It is the revelation of the Lord’s love for us that will awaken our hearts and cause us to run to him instead of from him. God is not naïve. He understands we are weak and immature. He understands we make mistakes. But he delights in us even when we are immature. He isn’t happy with our immaturity but he is happy with our desire to obey.
Ps 103:13,14 “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
Immaturity is different from rebellion. Even though the outward action may look the same, God looks at the heart. He understands when our hearts desire to follow Jesus but we are stuck in sin. That’s different from sinning because you’ve decided you don’t care what God thinks. It’s different than giving God the finger.
Our Heavenly Father “wants us to have confidence before Him in love so that we run to [Him] instead of from [Him] when we encounter our sin and weakness. He does not lose enthusiasm for us when we fail” (Mike Bickle). Even though we sometimes surprises ourselves when we sin. He does not become disillusioned with us. He had no illusions of us to begin with. And he still chose us! Understanding that God smiles all the time awakens something inside of us. Instead of being afraid of him and his reaction to our sin, we bring our sin to him and ask him to fix it. As a result, the guilt and condemnation we feel is replaced with freedom and feeling of security in his love for us.
In a moment, we’re going to ask God to forgive us for accusing Him of being angry or sad. When we fail, we often assume God feels about us the same as we do about ourselves. But that’s simply not true. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. He is patient; slow to anger and quick to forgive. I want to encourage you to come into agreement with His thoughts. Let His truth about you define your self-image instead of the Devil’s lies. The Devil is the one who is always mad and sad not our Heavenly Father.” God’s love for us is what determines our personal worth. We must define our success as being ones who are loved and chosen by God and who love God in return.”
Prayer:
I’d like you to find a posture of prayer you feel comfortable with. Personally, I like to put my hands out in front of me. Whatever your thing is so that you’ll be able to focus: do it.
Father, we come to you this morning in the name of Jesus. We love how you love us. We don’t understand it, but we love it. We ask that you would give us a revelation of your emotions. Give us understanding about who you are and what you’re like. We want to reflect your happy heart and your infectious joy to the world around us. We want to be transformed into your likeness. We want to be a joyful people because we serve a joyful God.
Forgive us for portraying you as mostly angry or mostly disappointed or mostly sad. I want to give you the opportunity to interact with the Lord. If you’ve had the image of God as being angry and disappointed you need to ask his forgiveness. I’m going to pray but I want you to put it in you own words.
Father, I want to repent that I have accused you of being angry and sad. I have agreed with the enemy’s lies about your character. I want to break my agreement with lies against your heart. I repent of believing that you are like the Devil.
If you’ve been in rebellion against God then repent of that. If you just haven’t cared, then repent of that.
Again, the Lord is not angry at you right now if your heart is to follow him. He understands the difference between wanting to follow him but tripping up all the time and turning your back on him.
Father, we agree with the truth about you. You love us and delight in us. You will never leave us nor forsake us. You take joy in showing mercy. You love us like you love Jesus.
We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your kindness. Thank you that you use kindness to bring us to repentance. You are so good. We love you.
It’s in the beautiful name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
(Adapted from Mike Bickle’s Sermons:
“God of Gladness” and
“Beholding God’s Glory by Encountering His Emotions”)
Take a moment and reflect on how God thinks of the world. What are some of the first thoughts which come to mind? What is God feeling right now? What emotion is he feeling most? Is he angry at the injustice and rebellion of humanity? Does he weep over the shedding of innocent blood and the church’s seeming inability to get it right? Does he have a belly laugh as he rejoices over his creation and delights in us as his children and bride even though we are weak and immature?
In the American church, we often have an unspoken answer to that question. It’s hard not to pick it up. God is mad and sad. But the truth of Scripture is that God’s emotions are mostly glad. It’s not an accident that when we worship a God who is mostly angry or cheerless we end up with a church which is mostly mad or joyless.
[slide]
Psalm 16:8-11
8 I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, [c]
nor will you let your Holy One [d] see decay.
11 You have made [e] known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Notice those last two lines. Another translation says “In your presence is the fullness of joy”. David isn’t just talking about a really good church service. He’s talking about what God’s presence is actually like. In heaven, the throne room of God is a joyful place. Holy? – yes. A place of laughter? – absolutely. Why? Because joy and gladness are who God is. Everything in heaven lines up with God’s character. In addition, remember, that this is actually a messianic psalm. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s about Jesus. Which means it is Jesus who says to the Father: “in your presence is fullness of joy.” That would mean Jesus is full of joy. Cant you just picture Jesus telling jokes to the Holy Spirit?
[slide]
Psalm 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.
In Psalm 45 we have another Messianic Psalm in which Jesus is anointed with the oil of gladness. Notice that we have 3 different emotions happening in the same verse: love, hate, joy. The issue is not whether God is ever angry. Let’s take this little rabbit trail for a moment. If someone abused my children and I didn’t get angry about it I’d be a terrible Dad. It would mean I didn’t love my children. The opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is apathy and indifference. If God didn’t hate things, he’d be a terrible Father.
The Bible is very clear that the Father is at war with whatever gets in the way of his love for us. The issue is whether his main emotion is anger or sadness and whether he relates to us as his children with those as his primary emotions. Believing those lies affects how we relate to our joyful God. He is a God of grinning and laughter.
I want to make this point very clear. I’m going to do it using mostly Old Testament scriptures because that is often where we perceive God being angry or disappointed.
[slide]
Deut 30:9 “The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers,”
Zeph 3:17 “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
[slide]
Is 62:4,5 “4 …for the LORD will take delight in you, 5 …as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
John 17:23 “…May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
[slide]
Romans 2:4 “god’s kindness leads you toward repentance”
It is the revelation of the Lord’s love for us that will awaken our hearts and cause us to run to him instead of from him. God is not naïve. He understands we are weak and immature. He understands we make mistakes. But he delights in us even when we are immature. He isn’t happy with our immaturity but he is happy with our desire to obey.
Ps 103:13,14 “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
Immaturity is different from rebellion. Even though the outward action may look the same, God looks at the heart. He understands when our hearts desire to follow Jesus but we are stuck in sin. That’s different from sinning because you’ve decided you don’t care what God thinks. It’s different than giving God the finger.
Our Heavenly Father “wants us to have confidence before Him in love so that we run to [Him] instead of from [Him] when we encounter our sin and weakness. He does not lose enthusiasm for us when we fail” (Mike Bickle). Even though we sometimes surprises ourselves when we sin. He does not become disillusioned with us. He had no illusions of us to begin with. And he still chose us! Understanding that God smiles all the time awakens something inside of us. Instead of being afraid of him and his reaction to our sin, we bring our sin to him and ask him to fix it. As a result, the guilt and condemnation we feel is replaced with freedom and feeling of security in his love for us.
In a moment, we’re going to ask God to forgive us for accusing Him of being angry or sad. When we fail, we often assume God feels about us the same as we do about ourselves. But that’s simply not true. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. He is patient; slow to anger and quick to forgive. I want to encourage you to come into agreement with His thoughts. Let His truth about you define your self-image instead of the Devil’s lies. The Devil is the one who is always mad and sad not our Heavenly Father.” God’s love for us is what determines our personal worth. We must define our success as being ones who are loved and chosen by God and who love God in return.”
Prayer:
I’d like you to find a posture of prayer you feel comfortable with. Personally, I like to put my hands out in front of me. Whatever your thing is so that you’ll be able to focus: do it.
Father, we come to you this morning in the name of Jesus. We love how you love us. We don’t understand it, but we love it. We ask that you would give us a revelation of your emotions. Give us understanding about who you are and what you’re like. We want to reflect your happy heart and your infectious joy to the world around us. We want to be transformed into your likeness. We want to be a joyful people because we serve a joyful God.
Forgive us for portraying you as mostly angry or mostly disappointed or mostly sad. I want to give you the opportunity to interact with the Lord. If you’ve had the image of God as being angry and disappointed you need to ask his forgiveness. I’m going to pray but I want you to put it in you own words.
Father, I want to repent that I have accused you of being angry and sad. I have agreed with the enemy’s lies about your character. I want to break my agreement with lies against your heart. I repent of believing that you are like the Devil.
If you’ve been in rebellion against God then repent of that. If you just haven’t cared, then repent of that.
Again, the Lord is not angry at you right now if your heart is to follow him. He understands the difference between wanting to follow him but tripping up all the time and turning your back on him.
Father, we agree with the truth about you. You love us and delight in us. You will never leave us nor forsake us. You take joy in showing mercy. You love us like you love Jesus.
We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your kindness. Thank you that you use kindness to bring us to repentance. You are so good. We love you.
It’s in the beautiful name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
(Adapted from Mike Bickle’s Sermons:
“God of Gladness” and
“Beholding God’s Glory by Encountering His Emotions”)
