Angry Street Preachers
Why Do They Sound Hateful
Greetings friends! If you do not know me, my name is Joseph! I am a servant of Christ, sent by Him to evangelize the whole world with His perfect wisdom. His perfect wisdom is the best for anyone, anywhere. We need His perfect wisdom so we can all live in perfect peace, love and joy!
This sounds very nice now. But I do not always sound so nice when spreading His wisdom, both on paper nor on camera (you can see my videos on our Youtube channel called, "Cleveland Street Preachers"). There is a phenomenon that is spreading in developed nations within the Body of Christ. What is happening is that more and more believers in these areas seem to cringe at harsh preaching. Harsh preaching means the preacher is fired up so much that they yell. Their face looks like they are angry. They may really scream while preaching. They preach about hell, against sin, against our culture and society today. So what is it that drives them? What drives a man to go out and start preaching like that? Does the man think to himself, "I hate these people. I'm going to go yell at them with a megaphone and tell them they're going to hell!" Do you honestly think that is what motivates a man to do that? I not once in my life ever thought that. Do you know what I see? I see men who love God. It takes a love for God to sacrifice your time, energy, and finances to go out there and serve God.
I have been to third world countries. In those countries I have preached very harshly. Guess what? The people there are not like the people in developed nations. Why? It is because the people of third world countries are much more humble. In developed nations, people have more wealth. With wealth comes pride. This is why Jesus says it is hard for the rich to enter heaven. The poor are humble. Thus, their hearts are more open to hearing the truth. The prideful have everything they want and need. Thus, they are spoiled and want to be right all the time. They want it their way. Humble people just want truth. They don't care how the message is spoken. Prideful people care more so how the message is delivered. Yet both want 100% truth, but the prideful want it also their way. They want more, more, more. It's about them, their ears, their desires. This is pride. God does not like this in a person, so if this is in you, you need to repent and get humble as Jesus commands us to! Matthew 18:4.
So why then preach so harshly? Simple. It is the Holy Spirit and His fire. Revelation 4:5 talks about the seven spirits of God represented by flames. This fire is associated with the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament. Another example is on day of Pentecost with the fire tongues that appeared above the Apostle's when the Spirit came upon them with mighty power! Jesus says after you receive the Holy Spirit, you receive power, Acts 1:8. So this power can come mightily and in different ways. Jesus says the children of the Spirit are like the wind, John 3:8. How does the wind blow? Is the wind the same every time? Isn't the wind a gentle breeze at times? Isn't it like a tornado other times? So the preaching can be done with mighty power, by the Spirit, and you will know by hearing the pure, 100% truth being spoken. Listen for the content, the what, rather than the how, of the message is being spoken.
So are the preachers really angry? Well is God angry? Does God get angry? Yes. He is angry with the wicked everyday, Psalm 7:11. He has His wrath on the children of disobedience, Col 3:6. So is it wrong to be angry at the evil of this world, the sin? No. That is called righteousness. This same righteous anger Jesus had. Righteous anger is anger for God's sake, not our own. So if a preacher seems angry, the Bible teaches us it is for righteous sake seeing it is for God's kingdom's sake, not the preacher's kingdom on this earth. I have met some harsh preachers. They preach a tough message. You hear them and the fear of God is put in you. And yet when you talk to them one on one, they are some of the nicest people. How does that work?
When a man goes to preach he goes into the battlefield for souls. He is armored up for battle. He knows the demons hate him and will manifest through the ungodly to try and stop him in any way they can. And yet if a man knows this before going out, knowing he is putting himself in harm's way, but he wants to do it for God, this is hate? The preacher is going to please God and also wanting to help the souls, his audience, to hear the message in the hopes they would repent and turn to Jesus? This is hate? The man wants his audience to be in heaven? He doesn't want them to go to hell? Yet this is hate?
So it may seem with the fleshly eyes as hate. To the world it may seem as hate. But in the eyes of Almighty God, it is love. It is love for Him. It is love for righteousness. It is love for His lost children.
So if the world calls them hate preachers, yet God calls them love preachers, who is right? They are sacrificing to be hated by their audience, mocked, assaulted, despite giving them a very, very harsh message. Yet the reason behind that message is because he has studied his audience. He knows their pride levels are through the roof. He knows the only way to break a prideful, rock-hard heart is to hit it with a hammer, not tickle it with a feather. And he does it all in the deep, true hopes they will get convicted, repent, turn to Jesus, and be in heaven one day. I honestly don't know how anyone can call this hate without being purely ignorant.
So to call a "hate preacher" just that, remember, you are being purely ignorant. You are judging them unrighteously based off what your fleshly eyes see, not what your spiritual eyes see. What is the real hate is not trying to help your neighbor hear the truth. What is real hate is not bringing your neighbor to the Holy Spirit and His perfect teachings. What is real hate is not trying to bring your neighbor to Jesus. So which category are you in? The love preacher who serves the Almighty or the self proclaimed believer who barely sacrifices anything for God and His lost children?
It's really easy to criticize the preacher, but it is extremely difficult to be the preacher.
Giving real love isn't easy.
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