Pastors Don’t Do This 14: Become Pastor Pharisee (Part 13 – Love Money)

In Luke 16.14 Luke tells us that the Pharisees loved money, and because they loved money they scoffed at Jesus talking! That’s staggering! Imagine listening to Jesus and scoffing. I know some people think they would never scoff at Jesus, but they scoff when His emissaries speak His words today for the same reason – they love money.

Let’s start at the foundational level here – a lot of ministers – FAR TOO MANY – spend very little time listening to others. I know pastors who for decades have never been to any conference or meeting they are not given a voice at. I just do not understand that approach at all. We need to be in the place where we listen to others talk. I listen to a minimum of one sermon from someone who is not me every day (I also listen to myself for quality control and read a lot of books but that’s by the by). We need to do that.

But when we listen to others, especially if they are more fruitful than us, we should not scoff. The Greek word for scoff is ekmykterizo and it literally means to lift your nose in the air, it means to sneer and deride. Jesus had healed the sick, they hadn’t. Jesus had raised the dead, they hadn’t. Jesus had crowds, they didn’t. But rather than have the humility to listen, they mocked. That’s one of the clear signs of a Pharisee – they mock fruitfulness and dismiss it. Rather than change and become more fruitful, they pull down the fruitful.

We regularly have people come to Tree of Life who want to be in leadership, but they mock what we have achieved. They haven’t started a church, we have – over and over, so an ounce of humility would mean you stop and listen. I’ve had people in my healing line tell me how to pray – no, you get to do that when I join your prayer line!

Sheesh! I have had a lot of pastors who have not done what we have done mock us and try and control us. Don’t be a Pharisee pastor – firstly, be in places where you hear the Word, and when you do – and the person is fruitful – don’t scoff, even if they do things difficult, but listen, learn and grow. Pharisee Pastors presume they have arrived and nothing could be further from the truth!