Saturday, March 15, 2008

The wrath of God, the death of Christ

Last night I gave a message about a terrifying subject: the wrath of God. But its aim was to show (among other things)
  • how terrifying God's wrath is
  • how great is what Jesus accomplished on the cross!
    • how thankful we should be for Jesus' death
    • how we should fear God
  • the dreadful fate of those who do not trust Jesus
    • how urgent it is for them to come to Jesus
    • how compassionate we should be toward them
  • how we should hate our sin, which God hates and which Jesus died for

At the beginning of my talk, I made a blanket statement about how the sermons and books of John Piper have deeply influenced me and this talk (and how I got permission to "copy" him as long as I acknowledged it at the appropriate spots).

Well, here of John Piper's works that I "copied" last night:

"God's Wrath: 'Vengeance Is Mine, I will Repay,' Says the Lord"
I got most of my points about God's wrath from here.

The Passion of Jesus Christ
This is the book that I was giving away last night. The author put the book online so people can read it for free.

I remember walking around on my college campus reading the short, two-page first chapter of this book. It blew me away when I saw the mercy and justice of God in the cross like this. I began to see God as bigger and scarier and more beautiful than I had before. (By the way, this chapter greatly influenced my song "Screaming," which I performed last night.)

7 comments:

Sophia :] said...

thats was a good message!! and a good songg!! and a good book!! :]

Sophia :] said...

oh yeaa! and thanks for the messagee! =]

Michael said...

Wow, thanks, Sophia! That's really encouraging!

Lunatella said...

i missed it. :P
poopie.


i was in san diego...


how'd it go?

Michael said...

Andrea--

Have been meaning to write you a note after I got back in town (I'm staying at my sister's apartment in Hawaii right now), but might as well write you now.

I want to apologize. Last Friday I actually showed a beautiful video about how God changed three people and how and why they got baptized. The thing is, those three people were you, Chris, and Sophia. It was a really cool, encouraging video, BUT I should have asked you guys first before showing it to everyone. I really wanted to show it because it tied in well with the message, and it was really encouraging, and I had spent an hour and a half the night before editing it. But I didn't mean to embarrass you guys. (I guess you missed out on the potentially embarrassing part, so maybe you're happy about that. :)) All that to say, sorry about that. I should've asked before sharing it.

(btw, when I was editing that video, I was very encouraged by the obvious way in which God has worked in your life!)

But, to answer your question, I thought the talk went great! I wanted to show God and the cross as big and scary and beautiful. And I think that happened.

Lunatella said...

oh, its ok. :]

and as you said, i would have been feeling a bit awkward... looking at ... me. yeah, well you get it. x]

and right when i thought i was rid of you guys :]


just kidding.


ps, thanks :]

Michael said...

Andrea--

Thanks for the gracious response!