(0:00)Why we judge pastors
unfilter welcome welcome welcome to another episode of PF on filter yep we're back how you guys feeling today pretty good yeah I'm good okay okay yeah all right for those who don't know PF right should I should I do this I do this for those who don't know PF PF is the lead pastor of New Covenant House one of the fastest growing churches in central Dallas every time I head one of the fastest growing I I want to know where do you guys get this from if you look the Sunday before and you see 250 and then the next Sunday is 350 I mean I kind of make sense though right yeah that's growth but then how do you know is the fastest I this specific say Central Dallas I don't know like I'm okay well we we'll take it with the p we'll go with it we'll go with it anyway I she when I talking ear on the week and we we were thinking should we should we text you should we let you know give you like an idea what we're going to talk about to today just something to kind of get you prep but we did not right we decided like let's just yeah we said let's roll with it let's throw you off really yeah I see I'm getting you okay I'm getting you now we trust it you'll be ready no you got this I'm getting you both of you anyway anyway anyway PF um you there was a situation um and I know you remember the situation because it was a situation it was a Q&A at church okay and it wasn't about specifically it wasn't about money it was random it was just a bunch of questions that you do you you address the questions based on the Bible and we got to wealth specifically speaking we got to like the a a pastor right of a church right boiling out you know flying private jets understand you know wearing the the 350 chains on the neck right you know what I'm saying we're in the sneakers preachers for sneakers right preachers for sneakers is that the is that I think that's a thing so there's this thing where apparently like someone I don't know if it was Instagram if you guys know about this I know about it who would tell the price of the pastor's Sho the pastor's shoes wait there's a thing ah there's even prophets and watches yeah ah there anyway that that that particular Q&A was very I guess before we even start like why is it such a polarizing conversation when you have a pastor of a church and money okay
(02:30)Pastors are human, not perfect
well I I think it's a couple of things right it's a few things number one I think it's what people's impression of who or what a pastor should be what people's impression of who of what a good Christian is right and fundamentally the way I look at it is this and it goes back to that thing we talked about the last time about how people always forget that pastors are human pastors are are human beings that God uses but they are not human beings that God is using because they are perfect right there are human beings that God in fact the Bible says that God uses vessels Earth andwar vessels right so that the Excellency of the power of the glory can be onto the Lord when God uses a flood vessel nobody's in doubt that it is God using that vessel when God uses a perfect vessel then we start to think that the person is perfect and that is where a lot of idolatry comes in celebrity worship where people present an image that is not real and we are lured or or beged into thinking that this person is perfect and it is because of them that things are happening or prayers are being answered so people have an image of who a pastor is that does not line up with a scripture or truth right pastors are human and human beings have all sorts of things good and bad about about us right the second thing is scripture right in the
(04:00)Poverty vs. Piety
past poverty was equated with piety the poorer person so so okay let me rephrase that poverty was equated with piety and a lot of the people who called who we called Saints now Saints as we used it in Christian tradition is not Saints as the Bible describes it all Christians are Saints yeah but in historically the church refer to people who were Pious as Saints so St John St Benedict you in fact the Catholic Church will call somebody a saint if a miracle has happened when his name was involved or when he was a part of it I'm not quite sure the details so there's this thing about how if you are Pious right we will see it in that you have rejected material things so anybody who Embraces material things who Embraces you know looking good and wearing expensive shoes and expensive watches cannot be Pious do you what I'm saying and that then we project it on to the pastor and we say well you're the pastor you're supposed to be the most Pious so you shouldn't care about you know Louis vuon sneakers Louis vuon I like you know you shouldn't yeah you know you shouldn't wear a mess you're the pastor you should not care about these things right and the reality is this there's nowh in the Bible that equates poverty to py in fact people who are poor can be just as wicked as rich people right and people who are rich can be just as good as poor people Jesus Christ did say it is harder
(05:40)Does the Bible hate wealth?
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle right he didn't say it was impossible he said it was harder and the reason why it can be hard for a wealthy person to accept Christ is because the wealthy person starts to rely on on his wealth right his wealth becomes a source of strength a source of comfort a source of support right and he can then say well I don't need Jesus cuz I have everything I need in my money it is not a rejection of wealth it is not a rejection of affluence the Bible does not reject affluence doesn't reject wealth the Prosperity Gospel is problematic extremely problematic right but you don't throw away the baby with the bath water right so I like nice things being a pastor does not make me less prone to liking nice things and there's nowhere in the Bible that tells me to disavow nice things so why should you demand it of me because you've got a cultural hangup you've got a flawed scriptural you've got flawed you know scriptural context and flawed scriptural knowledge right why should you demand that of me right so is I guess is she the question be rephrased to um it's not wrong to have nice things but if you have nice things be prepared for the possibility to be captivated by the nice things to where they might now influence you I I I I I struggle with that framing
(07:10)Are we 'captivated' by nice things?
I struggle with that framing first of all captivated by that what does that mean right am I driven by the acquisition of nice things right that's all I live for the acquisition of nice things well the Bible tells you that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions so I can have possessions and not see my life in those possessions I can wear expensive clothing drive an expensive car live in an expensive house and be fully rooted in Christ if I'm more rooted in Christ than the guy who doesn't have two shishi to put together so it there's an assumption that if something is shiny it captivates me so once you see me with a shiny thing you assume I'm captivated but that's not true it is not always it is sometimes true right right some people are captivated not by shiny material things they captivated by shiny acts of piety right they they they are captivated by you know climbing up the mountain every time they climb up the mountain they feel their PES and when I say Mountain I'm talking about physical mountains they will not pray except they are on a physical Mountain why aren't we having conversations about that level of captivation right some people are captivated by men of God why aren't we having conversations about those kinds of captivations idolatry is idolatry why is it we see a man wearing uh p Philip watch who is also preaching the gospel and everybody loses their mind why I so I think and we can we can talk about a little bit more our God is not a poor God there is nothing in God there's nothing about God right that promotes poverty nothing the Bible talks about how God clothes himself with light that no man can approach the Bible talks about how all the silver and all the gold the cattle on a thousand hills all the inhabitants of the earth belong to God right why is there is there an assumption that if I am wearing gold that belongs to God I've got a problem that's my problem that assumption now I'm not saying that the assumption is always wrong right right right but you can't start off with an assumption right you can't you know what that does what it does is that it makes it extremely difficult for anybody who has the calling of God on their lives to want to express it and it's not that they've got a problem with God but they are worried about being vilified by people who will not read the Bible being vilified by people who are constantly asking to be given the benefit of the doubt but will never give them the benefit of the doubt being vilified by people who are constantly asking for them to grant them Absolution and Grant them Grace but we will never give them any of that why why should I want to do it and so we complain that
(09:50)The danger of unrealistic expectations
the church is not growing young people are not interested in the church and the reason why young people are not interested in the church is not because young people see affluent pastors is because the people in the church have framed the affluence as a problem I am here some weeks 80 hours a week which means I can't do anything else right why should I be paid poorly for it why should my reward be in heaven and yours here I think it shouldn't be and to your point you made it shouldn't be painting the pastor poorly I think it's just how it's received I think is in in the Book of James where he talks about like be careful of those who are that preach the word I'm paraphrasing cuz you'll be judged more harshly yes you know I think that's just cuz it's not fair like you're saying but it's a warning to pastors right now people read that people read that and see it as validation to judge pastors harshly right that's yeah right the Bible says you'll be judged harly so I'm going to be the one that judges you harshly you get Point that's not what that scripture is saying it is saying that look part of the this role is that they're going to be unre real istic expectations part of this role is that people are going to call you out of your name part of this role is all of this stuff that goes with it right there is no part of the scripture that is saying to you today take on that role right be the PVE of judgment be the purveyor of unrealistic expectations it's telling people that when you sit in this office right and and you know for me as a pastor right it took me a minute to accept it to get used to it right because I always felt that if I'm giving you Grace if I'm you know helping you grow if I'm doing all of these things for you right then you will want the best for me you know you will want me to be happy you want me you
(11:45)Should PKs suffer for the church?
know I always use the example of my children right my children because they are the children of pastors should not be doomed to subar education and we know there is supp high education right right we know that there are school districts that are problematic why are my kids because I have chosen to be a pastor be doomed to a subire education because not because I I I don't have the capacity or because not because God cannot provide but because I do not want to offend the ignorant sensibilities of a congregation who refuses to read the Bible right or read it in selective selectively right why should I subject my kids to a supp education my kids will never if I do that we you know we're constantly talking about how pastor's kids don't want to have anything to do with church that's why makes sense it's not that they see their parents being terrible is they see how their parents are treated so they don't want to touch it they don't want to touch it because this man is working so hard and he shows up in a nice carar and everybody loses their mind meanwhile offering is not missing you don't see him knocking on people's doors asking them to bless him you don't see him preaching from the pull pit if you bless the pastor you have a special Lane like TSA PreCheck never you don't see that you know what I'm saying yeah he's writing books the books are selling but still he is a pastor so he
(13:30)The Mary and the Oil story
should give all the money to the poor a woman brought her oil which some people say was the equivalent of one year's wages and he Jesus Christ came into a home that was full of very religious people the the elders and the leaders the deacons and the prophets the the religious people of the day and he sits down and they don't honor him they don't do anything for him and this man takes all this things that she has and she breaks it and she honors him with it she washes his feet does all of that stuff right and they're like ah this money we could have taken it and fed millions of people whatever Jesus said the poor you will always have with you because poverty in the world is not because the pastor is driving a Lexus that's why there's poverty in the world if he gave up that Lexus it would not change poverty if you took all the money from the Lexus and gave it to one person it may not change poverty in that person's life right so what is the argument what is the argument for pastors who are honest who are sincere who are doing it the way the Bible says what is the argument for them to be impoverished what does it serve nobody has been able to tell him what they serve except we want to keep him humble so he has to be poorer than we are or look poorer than we are you can see my frustration with that no absolutely now if the pastor is going on the ppit and using his position to
(14:50)When is the pastor actually wrong?
extort money from the people to manipulate money out of the people to and then using that money in fact whatever he does with the money even if he uses the money to build an orphanage it is still not acceptable how the money comes is just as critical of an issue as how the money is spent spent right if I am doing a hard days work and I'm getting paid for it how I spend my money is not your concern as long as I do not spend it contrary to the dictates of scripture yeah and what does the Bible say let your moderation be visible to all men now which men and and how do you define moderation moderation it it then becomes very subjective right so I believe when you gather people of Good Intentions and good will people who are sincere then you get uh uh an appropriate definition of these terms but many times and I'm not again please I'm not carrying water for every Pastor I I'm not because I know that there are people in the propit who are not trained experienced who should not even or called to be there I know that for a fact so I can speak for myself right and I can tell you this and the people who are in leadership in the church will tell you this I get a salary and for many years I got a very a salary that was not commensurate to the work I was doing and that that's fine I'm still not getting a salary that is commensurate to the work I'm doing that's the truth there was a joke the other day you know where somebody said I I I don't know what we're talking about I'm like well well you know what I'm going to decide because I earned the big box and one of the women who worked in the finance department started to laugh and I'm like so why you laughing she said I I know your salary it is not big box and that was that was that was interesting you know but I am not embarrassed to say that I am paid decently I am not embarrassed to say this is what I have chosen to do with my money I don't decide for you what you do with your paycheck do why well I we establish that a pastor is not on the same level as then we should call it out we should call it out and we should say hey hey where is the money coming from did he steal it did he extort it from you did he get it out of you unfairly right then what he does should be none of your business we should be able to say that he said we should stop asking pastors these kind of questions about you know being captivated why isn't anybody asking you about being captivated by your Ferrari know exactly because they assume that this one is just useless ah okay okay so then the problem is that the pastors have created impression that they're not useless maybe or or or we've also project you know this doing so whose fault is that all of told that is going to be like is a is a we we we figured out that we had our conversation before this and we figured that you were going to say alas no whose force is it no I don't want to be cynical about it there is a problem right right I think some Pastors in order to do their okay so let me tell you a quick story when I was there was a church I used to pastor and every time I spoke to them if I said something I was very careful not to say God said and every time I didn't say God said they dismissed anything I had to say because as far as I was concerned and rightfully so this is the opinion of fey Fe and I didn't say God said because I wasn't 100% s sure that God said so it was fine but every time somebody said God said right they would accept it they would embrace it as gospel truth even if the person I knew was a crash liar and was lying it made me think would I get a lot more done by saying God said when I wasn't sure that God actually said I had to make a decision and I decid that you know what it was better for me to be able to look myself in the and knowing and know that I told the truth than to get something done now some folks don't make that choice some folks are like you know what it's for a good cause it's in the Bible God said God said it but the Bible has told us who are sitting in the congregation test every Spirit right test every spirit so I come to and I say God said and you don't test it you don't ask did God say you don't ask the holy spirit inside you did God say what what what if I'm 70% sure that God said what if I'm 70% sure there's a 30% probability that God did not say right you know what the check is you know what God puts the check God puts on that right is that when I come and tell it to you you hearing it should discern whether God actually said but I come and tell you you don't do the work you agree that God said and then you give me the money I go and use it and buy a Ferrari and you're like ah oh when I told you God said why didn't you go and check did I take put my hand in your pocket and get the money out no I had 70% you know uh sense of that I was being accurate right and sometimes I'm actually accurate at 70% right right that's a high percentage I'm just thr numbers out there so so there's there's a there's a leadership role and a followership role right there's a it's a two-way street I come and tell you I feel God said you go back and say PF you know what I'm not sure God said that but you know what that's fine but what we do I say God said you don't want to do the work okay PF I said God said then when it go south ah PF said God said no no no no didn't God say to you I don't think you guys get the yeah it's just I guess I'm thinking and you're right to go do the work but I'm like do I not take your word for it like if you said don't take my word for it no seriously speaking customer support no Ser hear me out hear me out when it comes to God said do not take my word for it the Bible says test every Spirit the Bible says the Barian Christians were more noble because everything they heard they went back to check and I say that over and over if I say anything and you guys know if you if I say anything and you have an issue with I'm available to talk to you now there are some Churches where wo be tied you if the pastor says God said and you question it but you make the choice to be in that church you make the choice to be under somebody who does not give you the room to inquire of God concerning anything he says then you're going to vilify every Pastor because you made a choice to be under somebody who is crooked do you think that's what so the Q&A do you think that's what motivated that exchange it wasn't from the experience with me okay I know that for a fact it was just like this general idea past oh absolutely because if you if you were talking from your experience with me you remember the years when I drove a Ford winster not my own my brothers because the church couldn't afford to pay me money actually actually I don't even think it was a I'm just I'm just saying personal attack no no no I'm just saying that no absolutely I knew was just like I knew it wasn't I KN no no I knew it wasn't personal if it was personal you would have to be particularly disingenuous to accuse me of that kind of flagrant abuse of church folks and church finances right right because it would not be born by the fact you would know the years I drove a winster the years I drove a master you would know because my wife and I in order to prevent this kind of thing are very vocal about our income all of those times my wife was a pharmacist my wife started working in church only recently and you know anyway that's another story but all of those years my wife was a pharmacist she had two jobs and that was before the glot in the pharmacy market where they were paying phaces sign on bonuses that were ridiculous she was making middle six figures nice yeah from two jobs and she did 7even on seven off and all the bonuses that came with that now if you had been in this church you would know that right and you would know that that was where the source of our in and you know how much you put in the offering you know now you put $2 there Pastor is not driving a luxury car out of your $2 so whose $2 whose money is he driving the luxury car out of it's not your money it's the combined money the combined money all but there are only there are only 200 people in the room so if all of us put $22 it's $400 meanwhile you're living you're you're having service in a in a room right with air conditioning yeah there are people who you know are being paid so where is this money that he's spending coming from you get my point yeah so I know that it is not I didn't take it personal because I thought it was me right I took it personal because I thought it was not fairh to throw everybody into a basket one category I think it was good cuz you could kind of see people like it was divided the CL yeah and a lot of people that were like that were thinking about me lot people that were like that's not accurate right yeah right were thinking about me that PF you I'm saying some were thinking about it from my perspective which is don't generalize let me give you a a classic example about private jets H I know a pastor who I used to and this one I know from person it's not it's not you know here personal experience when I got saved e tickets are a new thing right in those days I'm talking about 1992 93 it was still booklets you go to the checking counter the checking person would pull out one sheet so everywhere you went on the process they pulled out one sheet of paper out of the booklet of little strips of paper and this man of God I I was involved in transporting him for a flight we used to call it protocol I was part of his protocol detail and he was going to take a trip he was preaching in like six or seven different places on different continents and the booklet of his tickets was about 6 to 10 in thick right flying commercial 70% of his time will be spent in layovers at different airports if you're going from Europe to mosambique right you're going to maputo maputo is capital of mosm there's only one flight out of Johannesburg going to Muto if your flight does not arrive and you have no control of when your flight arrives in in Johannesburg right that means that you're going to sit in the airport right for as long as it takes to catch that flight to mosambik so your schedule is built around the airline schedule right it can get unbelievably difficult because the Airline is not scheduling you right according to the airline is not flying according to your schedule your programs are not scheduled according to your schedule they are scheduled according to the needs of the congregation so nobody is coordinating these schedules but this man of God who I believe was sincere and like I said I saw the pamphlet and by the way if you're saying to yourself oh why is he traveling up and down you should you should say the same thing to Paul or the apostles who were constantly traveling anyway it is not practical some affluent people gather together and say hey it is not practical this lifestyle is Not Practical it's going to kill you it's by the time you you spend 14 hours on a plane 12 hours at an airport oh by the way you know he can't go and stay in a nice hotel because the church folks are going to say he's being wasteful so he sits in the airport at is like I don't mission mission trips or something oh okay yeah not necessarily Mission when we say mission trips we always think mission trips we always interpret mission trips you're going to preach to you're going to rural areas not necessar rural areas yeah you're talking about a Congregation of 20 30,000 churches all over the world and he's speaking at each one of them anyway some affluent people in church come together and said you know we're going to put together some money buy a a jet and they buy him a jet now in that instance I know from personal experience that that jet was not about vacations it wasn't about an appearance of affluence it was about time management but then there are guys who have and and the thing with jets anybody who owns a jet will tell you that you can't drive a jet the way you drive a car so a jet cannot be flying all the time you will wear it out you will destroy it so you might need one or two it is hard for somebody who drives a Ford Escort to comprehend why you would need two Jets who cost which cost 15 million each and I get that right but not everybody is doing it because they want to be on Instagram this guy and by the way I'm not a fan of him or his message but I saw his life and I saw the need for it you're not going to catch me vilifying him for flying a private jet you will not catch me complaining about it I'll be vulnerable that obviously this is moral selection but I I can't wrap my this is 92 yeah so there was no there Wasabi not the way not the way we have it right now I can't and I'm not trying to verify this individual because I know I have my own but I cannot wrap my head around the funds of the private jet were from the affluent people wasn't from the church no it wasn't from church okay and that's different yeah cuz I was going to say like that was a gift right like I think but you didn't know that right you are going to say what you going to say but you didn't know where the money came from so many times true are are talking without asking so where did the money come from now there are times when we know where the money comes from where somebody goes on television and says God said you should send me money to buy a private jet and where am I flying from I'm flying from Georgia to California we have a right to be like brah Wan where you they go wait yeah what are you doing you know we know the size of your ministry you speak in every month you speak in one place right you're going to stay in the in the Four Seasons you already have two Jets bro absolutely what this guy's motiv what this person's motivation because the pastor that that the AFL people came together to get in private jet because it's one thing if other churches that are well established are inviting you to come and speak or you just saying look man it's I me it's 1992 you mentioned Paul M I get I get back then when communication resources are little so so this is the thing right again where they go so that is the challenge that we have we pick on one part of the system we don't look at the whole system right so we can say to the pastor Pastor why do you have to be the one to go to all of these 10 countries why can't you raise the people who are there to do the work you are doing I'm a person I can tell you this and it's the frustration of many pastors when we have an event and we say brother Wally should speak at the event right we think that this event is going to be a blessing to these people so we say brother W should be at the event because the cost of getting Pastor Fe to the event is too high when people look at the program of the event and they see brother w no off not Pastor Fe no offense you're like ah show this I'm not going now where I'm at now today I wasn't always there but where I am now today and they don't want to show let them not show but in the past I was driven by the need to meet the needs of the people everyone so however it is they're going to eat the food if they're going to eat it out of the spoon out of this spoon then that is the spoon I'm going to give them now I've gotten to a point where I'm like this is the spoon I have if you want to eat eat if you don't want to eatat don't eat but those same people are the ones who are going to turn around and vilify me for putting brother W there that ah Pastor Fe is lazy Pastor Fe feels is a big man now he can't come and talk to us he only shows up on Sunday he doesn't show up on the at the prayer meeting doesn't show up at the Bible study he's a big man now those are the same people when I say okay well you know all this driving up and down from corner to corner I need a better car say ah Pastor Fe is a big man now he wants a good car if escort is not good enough for him come on man you want kill the guy no be no be SE I se now not Pastor until you see my blood you're not happy you know so so let's address all of those things let's talk about the congregation that onless it is this man of God they don't want to hear coming let's talk about that as well we've established that it's not fa no we haven't we've established that no no today today keep trying to extricate himself very quickly you I'm not I actually I agree with you I how many my lifestyle is domistic part of it this is the first time today this is the first time in the history of the world that the church folks are actually comfortable with watching the service online was it because of the pandemic you think yeah oh yeah the pandemic you know we we actually there was a time when if you said you are streaming the service nobody's going to no I have to be have to be there live in person now we're afraid of virus we we are we learn to be okay at home that is such a that's a different conversation I'm just trying the contradiction for me is next level I'm just trying to say what I'm just trying to say is this right it is the the pastors are the easy targets but the problem is much bigger than that right if a pastor comes and says the Lord said bring $20,000 you bring the $20,000 H there are two criminals in this story the person who asked you for the $20,000 and the person who brought the $20,000 without asking God let's beat both of them up and the pastor should know better don't you have the Bible yeah you oh well the pastor is the one who is the leader don't you have the Bible oh so you didn't read your Bible yes we didn't so let's talk about that let's talk about the people who are not reading their Bible not sweet there you go that's pastors are up here and of us were down here but I mean it's sweeter let's we've established that it is sweeter to to vilify to trash the pastor that talk about the people who don't read their Bibles I'm okay who listening never said he okay to you know that was what you call a Freudian SLE disclaimer that's what you call a Freudian s that is but but you know what but you know that is the truth yeah yeah when when when they always you know pastors when we get say man if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen there certain that come being a pastor and I I hate to say this because that is not my experience God has blessed me with a fantastic congregation most awesome awesome shout out to so you know it's mostly fantastic every once in a while every once in a while they show they it comes out yeah we get a tday wow I'm just messing with you but but some people make it a spot to tear down anybody that they feel is in a better position than they are sure some people Delight in tearing down people that are visible because and I'll tell you why I think people do it your visibility and your position has been taught that that visibility and that position is a consequence of some virtue that you have some skill some talent in some way you're you're the head because you're better than me right in some way you're the head because you're better than me in this or that in church it is usually because you're morally Superior to me that's why you are the pastor right I have two choices when I look at myself in the mirror and I'm not as and I see flaws I can level the playing field and bring everybody down to my level we're all sinners in fact you I'm going to prove that you're a sinner I'm going to put the price of your shoes on Instagram just like me so I'm going I'm going to tear you down because when I tear you down I feel good about myself that's what a lot of folks do yeah or you know why should you have all of that love and adoration and adulation it's because they don't know the kind of person you are I'm going to bring you down so that they can see who you are right now that is not always the case it is not even mostly the case it is occasionally the case there are real issues of abuse from the pastorate there are pastors who I think have abused their position for personal enrichment but it just triggers me when somebody says all pastors or when they say pastors right there are it's like saying all women are gold diggers are there some women that are gold diggers there a few so we say to this person this woman is a gold digger we don't say women are gold diggers and every time women hear somebody say females are gold diggers or women are gold diggers it's a fight right get you good or they say all men are are dogs we know men who are not dogs and we know some men who are dogs when we hear that we we're like no no no no don't generalize that is how I feel yes there are people who are abusing the structures the systems right but there are people man who are not there are pastors who are doing well how do you how do you Recon as a pastor yeah how do you reconcile that cuz you go on on the pull pit and you have to say it's time for tides right an offering an offering M and I can only imagine again how you have to say people you're not tithing because you want God to give you something you're cuz I heard you say a lot of times right like it's the act of worship right but then again there are other people that feel like I need to motivate this congregation a lot more because even though I don't need your money the church needs your money right so how do you balance that what do you mean the needs of the congregation yeah what I have learned to do and you know there was a time when I felt the need to motivate people but these days I am driven by the word of God and what does the word of God say my role as a pastor is to help people find God train them prepare them to do the work of the ministry right and in order to do the work of the ministry we need money that money is money that is given to God In Worship right God does not eat money doesn't spend money we use the money here on Earth to facilitate the work right but the scope of the work is determined by the resources yeah so if we have $100 yeah we can build one square fet one square foot sorry can only take one person if if me coming to church and saying let's give God money out of worship and Thanksgiving and all we get is that $100 yeah then we're going to minister to only that one person I'm not going to come and ginger you and push you and poke you and harass you to give me $1,000 so that I can minister to 10 people God who wants me to minister to 10 people let him poke you himself seriously let him Ginger you himself the word just yeah I got you and I believe he can I believe he can right if he doesn't whatever urge I have to minister to 10 people 100 people I have to suppress it the vision cannot go past the provision God determines the provision hence God determines the scope of the vision right but that takes for me it's taken a lot of growth to get to that point where I I don't feel compelled to go beyond the scope of God's provision and push for more provision it takes a lot right of isn't that the whole Prosperity Gospel that's like what drives it no not not what you're saying people that feel compelled to push it right they tend to like use Prosperity Gospel as a means to motivate the audience hey this is why you sh regardless of what they do with the money this is because I I think the Prosperity Gospel they don't use the Prosperity Gospel that is the Prosperity Gospel right that if you give the more you give the the more you give the more you get now I will tell you this so that just so that nobody's getting the wrong impression I do believe that you get back what you give materially the Bible says hear me the Bible says what you s you will rap says as long as the Earth remains seed time and Harvest Time will never seize what that means is that what you sow you will reap if you sow material things you will reap material things if you sow X you will reap X plus it's it's a very simple principle right you can be a good person you can be a great farmer you can have all the favor in the world they Heavens can open and by the way the heavens don't open because you sow seed people don't get that it is not your seed that opens the heavens the heavens are open because God has decided to bless you with rain in the Old Testament that decision that God made to open the Heavens to bless you with rain was based on how good you are was based on how much of the law you obeyed and by the way when it comes to OB obeying the laws of God it is 100% or 0% so if you manage to attain 100% or if the country let's move away from percent say if we reach a level of of Holiness virtue righteousness yes that's the word if you if if you reach a level of righteousness that is pleasing to God he will reward you by opening the Heavens to you but then we have learned that if you are not righteous in everything you are righteous in nothing is either 100% or zero and that is unattainable for mankind so you know what God did God sends Jesus Christ and Jesus then qualifies us because of his 100 pering he's a 100er right I'm making up my own words Jesus qualifies us so that means in the eyes of God we are qualified to have the windows of Heaven open so if you are in Christ you are going to get rain rain is the multiplying force that causes seed to bear fruit right if you don't put any seed in the ground when the rain comes what happens nothing right nothing nothing is going to grow nothing is going to grow I wish I could tell you something else I wish I could tell you that you don't have to do anything just sit down relax don't be nice to anybody don't be kind to anybody don't SW any seeds don't give anybody Jack I wish I could tell you that but that would be lying because that's not what the Bible says right what we have been taught is that our seed our offering is what qualifies us that is error we're not qualified by our offering there was a time in the old Covenant when we were qualified by our righteousness now we're qualified by the righteousness of God but our qualification yeah does not equate into harvest the size of the Harvest is determined by the seed the rain is a constant if you're in Christ so being in Christ guarantees the rain right but your seed matters it actually does that is what the Bible says I wait for anybody to show me where the Bible doesn't say that there are some people who will tell you that's a Prosperity Gospel I don't care they can you can label it whatever you like you want to call it but this is what the Bible says as long as the Earth remains seed time and Harvest Time will not seize so no matter how sophisticated Humanity gets we still put seed in the ground we still have to get wheat we still have to put wheat does not come out of the sky so if I so yes regardless of my motivation would I your motivation H is your qualification let me explain okay if you sow and let's use let's not use S if you give okay if you give out of your position in Christ God is not looking at your motivation God is looking at Christ's motivation and he will open the heavens over you because you are sewn you are sowing in Christ right if you are sowing in Christ you will very quickly realize yeah that the only right motivation now let me rephrase that if you are sowing in Christ if you are abiding in Christ there is a transformation that takes place where your motivations change and your motivation becomes the right motivation while that transformation is taking place if it takes place if it doesn't take place what God is looking at is Christ Jesus and He blesses you according to Christ according to the level of Christ's righteousness does that make sense yeah so when we talk about motivation let me tell you what the Bible says about that we don't talk about a lot it says all of your righteousness is as a filthy rag before God what is righteousness righteousness is Right standing with God that means that everything you do to be in right standing with God outside of Christ is unacceptable to God even your motivation so when your motivation is right and it's outside of Christ yeah it is Tainted by your nature everything that we bring to God outside of Christ is stained by our sin nature in Christ it is purified and acceptable to God so talking about motivation the question is motivation where outside of Christ or in Christ outside of Christ God looks at your motivation and he what he wants to do is just kill you in Christ he doesn't see your motivation he sees the motivations of Christ yeah I'm tired no no no but I can I mean that was good though yeah but but you guys get the point I was making about the about the pastor the pastor thing there are problems in church there are lots of problems in church you know and some of the problems are fixable no all the problems are fixable if everybody were to pick up their Bibles and read it but we have established we have established that you when I call customer support do you know and and if it tells me hey you have the manual look at it it's in your car you know what I'm say guy do you if you customer support if you call customer support and you don't look at the manual and customer support says oh why don't you take a sledgehammer and when you take a sledgehammer and smash your TV in it will make it it will make it work better you're going to be like H that doesn't make any sense no no no I'm telling you I'm telling you I'm Customer Support I'm telling you what do you do you go back and you check the man no I check that one is easy I don't need man for idiot maybe maybe give me something he but then what he will do what he would do is he will tell you that I'm customer support either you do it or you don't do it I can I talk to your manager cuz you got to get fired and then he called his manager and the manager says is that you do it or you don't do it not going back to saying eventually I don't trust this person to know what they're saying I'm going to go check what it actually so when he says good followership go back and read your Bible when they're saying ridiculously outlandish things like okay yeah maybe I should actually go back my Bible what is happening what I mean that's a really good point you guys exactly guy open the thing different versions they won open it oh yeah they will go on social media and start just running their mouth and you don't realize how stupid you look right because if you had read the Bible you could have stood up and told your pastor BR he can't put a gun to your head and take money out of your pocket now that's a fair point so all of us we should everyone should climb off this their High horses you know those guys who are on social media talking about pastors this pastors that pastors this pastor I I look at them I'm just like man if you have been victimized by a pastor when it comes to money right yeah you bear some responsibility if you've been Bewitched you bear some responsibility read your Bible read your Bible if you don't read your Bible somebody tells you this is what the Bible says you believe it and you're complaining that the person lied to you come on man who is the problem here the liar or the person who had ability to tell the lie and chose not to both of them are problems but everybody should calm down it's like you know I'm I'm Nigerian and there's this thing about 419 you guys of course you know you know about this I'm sorry what is 41919 never never heard of that God what is that you know it is said that people who say that usually are doing 419 so I don't know what say about you but but but this is what this is this is the thing about 419 this is is fraud right which is you know people will send some person a letter right saying you have been selected to receive $250 million all you have to do is send $5,000 to this account and they send the $5,000 you have to have some leny in you to think you can give somebody who you don't know who doesn't know your $5,000 and you're going to get a cut of $250 million you must be a thief yourself I'm telling you the truth you cannot be an innocent person work hard for your money and somebody tells you we you receive a letter come on let's call a spade a spade now the criminals are bad they are bad and they should be locked up but you that somebody died and left money you're not asking wait what about his his children how did he get this money he stole it and if you don't send the $5,000 the government will seize it you to you send the $5,000 he calls himself a prince you have Google in front of you you can't Google prince prince Akim Joseph you send $5,000 and you expect me to feel sorry for you n the ones I feel sorry for are the ones where somebody comes and tells them how much he loves them and they're so lonely and then they fall in love with this person and they start sending them money that those people who do that that those ones I feel really sorry for right because there's no way you can tell whether somebody really loves you or not other than the attention they pay you but other things you know somebody tells you that my name is Prince jibu jaaba you know send me $2,000 and you to you actually go and and then your bank is asking you do you know this person before you say yes you know them meanwhile you don't know them all the mechanism put in place to protect you you intentionally push them aside and then you are now saying uhuh now come on we supposed to ask about your own responsibility inside the matter now so yes pastors some pastors need to do better some guys are doing a fantastic job fantastic job honest fantastic job and God is blessing them and they're doing well and their children are going to good schools some are thieves yeah it's true some are thieves not all of them are th PF on fed it's true some pastors pastors you don't know the percentage some some pastors are some th even some Congressional members are thieves too and and and that's the beauty of of what we're trying to do right just to be able to like have this difficult conversations create some vulnerability was this one difficult for some people I think it is though I mean I hope that people will listen to this and then start the entirety the entirety they probably w't ask the right question most people I hope will some will just take a snippet right you know and and run with it and that's fine because again you're responsible to listen to the whole thing if you really want to know listen to the whole thing if you want to find a sound bite to vilify pastors with or to justify whatever you want do you're going to find it and I feel no guilt none whatsoever for what I'm doing because you chose what you chose I'll try and educate you if I get the chance for I said I I don't I don't I don't own it all right thanks PF this was inlight very very