He was preaching against alcohol. He was not preaching against the abuse of alcohol, just alcohol. I guess he was mad it existed. His objective was to have all the grapes in the audience repent for their fermenting ways.
I was ten, and as a ten year old, I was deeply moved/scared by the sermon. As I left Church that morning, holding my breath as I passed all the elders and deacons who were smoking right outside the door (is this why we were called camelites?), I vowed to never take a sip of the stuff because I did not want God to hate me.
God has taught me something since then.
He has taught me that I am loved unconditionally. Therefore, He will never hate me for any of my transgressions. The anger that was expressed in the sermons that I heard was not from God but from man.
Sure, we disappoint and sadden God, but His anger is typically directed at those who mistreat the poor and broken for their own gain - the money changers who use the house of God to push their own agendas. This is what provoked God to flip a couple of tables in John 2.
So know this: no matter what you have done, no matter what you have been yelled at for by some self-righteous jerk, God loves you. He wants relationship with you. In fact, He's dying to be with you.
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