man holding nose because something stinks

Frustrated

“I will build my church”

Frustration can be debilitating when it continues. We likely have all had moments of not being able to change a circumstance but when the moment becomes a lingering situation, we have difficulties progressing back to productivity, to the ‘normal’ means of handling life.

Does God know frustration? Unlikely for God ‘sees’ more clearly, does not become distracted, is more able to separate appearances from reality than we created beings. There is an interesting series of rhetorical exchanges illustrating this in Malachi. Malachi is found at the end of the Old Testament and appears to have been written decades after the beginning of the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylonian Captivity. The context is that the returnees have settled into life back in Judea and have become somewhat comfortable with the lifestyle they have created. They are no longer idolaters serving other nations’ false gods but… Following are snapshots of the exchange between the Lᴏʀᴅ and the Israelites.

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.
But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lᴏʀᴅ’s table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts. 1

“Where is my honor” and “Where is my fear” queries the Lᴏʀᴅ, both reasonable expectations of the Lᴏʀᴅ who not that many years before had brought them back out of Captivity. Yet, the Israelites act clueless: “How have we…?” Each time God asks a meaningful question with an obvious answer, the Israelites come up blank. When God lays out the reasons for each question, the answer is clear but they do not get the truth of their lifestyle before God.

But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lᴏʀᴅ. 2  
You have wearied the Lᴏʀᴅ with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” 3

Israel can’t see how their casualness relative to the Lᴏʀᴅ is ‘weariness,’ a disrespect of all that the Lᴏʀᴅ is and all He desires to be in relationship with them. Their ‘close enough is good enough’ philosophy is an affront to God when they claim to love Him only above all else. How could God possibly take their comfortable ways as less than devotion to Him? God’s rebuttal is that they have not drawn near, that their hearts are distant.

If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. 4  

After all, God is seeking for a people with a heart after His heart. Even after Malachi speaks these messages to the Israelites, they still see no problem on their side:

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 5  

“How shall we return?” is the same as responding that, “We are acceptable in our eyes and that is good enough.” If anyone had reason for frustration, the Lᴏʀᴅ certainly has that reason. Unresponsiveness, shallowness, disrespect, ignoring, self-contentment all in the face of all recorded in the first thirty-nine books of the Bible. Yet, God only points out the inconsistencies and continues to set in process His remedy despite the lack of response to what He has already done.

Frustrated? Then comes Jesus. Certainly we will honor the Son of God, will honor the gift of the Father, the inworking of the Holy Spirit, the supremacy of divine redemption. Certainly, for we are so much wiser, so much more informed, so much more knowledgeable of the completeness of the Lᴏʀᴅ’s efforts on our behalf. We will honor him with our response.

Let me share a perspective you may have overlooked, unintentionally but possibly deliberately. I have been involved in more than a half-dozen churches over the past sixty years and at least two-thirds of those had a modern frustration factor. I have served in several roles and been close to pastors, teachers, elders and other leaders and the proportion of leaders who lived frustrated because of the expectations put upon them by ‘others’ than God is very high. Leaders are expected to be the ones who make the church successful, flourishing, vibrant, dynamic and large. When these measures do not fulfill the expectations of the attendees, pressure is ‘shared’ with the leadership to ‘change’ the Leader for it must be His fault for not exceeding expectations. I have yet to work with a leader who was not sacrificing himself for the sake of the Body yet too many are treated as hirelings not serving God but man. There seems to be confusion over God’s priorities. Jesus was the One who said how the Church was to be built:

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 6  

Forget about whether ‘rock’ refers to Peter or the Pope for what is most vital is Who is claiming to be responsible for doing the building: JESUS! “I will build” is the personal statement of Jesus and does not shift the fundamental responsibility to any lesser agency. Yet, most of the organizations (small ‘c’ church) think they can hire someone to take responsibility. Hmm. I have known dozens of pastors and leaders who were giving their all through the giftings God enabled them with who were held to ‘a higher standard’ of performance by those who hired them than by God. And to take away the expectation arguments, here’s God’s Word summary on lead and follow:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 7

‘Equipping for the work of ministry’ does not say the leader does the work but rather he does the equipping. Yes, ‘building’ is the same as in Matthew 16 and yes, these leaders are involved but the Church is Jesus’s Body and not the leaders. Leaders serve the Supreme Leader, Jesus.

As in the Malachi ministry, it is the unresponsiveness of the followers at all levels that God addresses. But if you are frustrated with what God is doing in His Body, you may want to take it up with Him… after you do your due diligence on whether He could consider you a frustration. I have known many wonderful followers of God but I have also seen way too many leader-servants weakened by frustrated followers of everything except the heart of God. We always do best to see through the heart of God and respond to His passion rather than our own.

FOOTNOTES:
 1 Malachi 1:6-8 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mal/1/6-8/s_926006
 2 Malachi 1:13 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mal/1/13/s_926013
3 Malachi 2:17 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mal/2/17/s_927017
4 Malachi 2:2 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mal/2/2/s_927002
5 Malachi 3:7 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mal/3/7/s_928007
6 Matthew 16:18 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mat/16/18/p0/t_conc_945018
7 Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV) – https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/eph/4/11-16/s_1101011
Matthew 16:18 (ESV) - https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mat/16/18/p0/t_conc_945018
All Scripture references from the Blue Letter Bible, ESV
at https://www.blueletterbible.org
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

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