Pastor’s Don’t Do This 25 Being Light About the Things of God

Last week, I asked someone who was working for the church in the finance department to give money to two ministries and they refused. They said the money should be given later when other things were done. They were light about the things of God. They were not taking God seriously, and putting His commands to give and sow seed off to another day. One thing no pastor or church leader must ever be is light about the things of God. Cain put off giving until later, Abel gave the first-fruits of his income. Only Abel was a man of faith!

Some people have a naturally practical temperament, that’s true, but we must no matter our temperament take the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the office of a pastor or the kingdom of God lightly. We have to take that more seriously than anything else. 

One of the things that differentiates people who are fruitful in the kingdom and those who are not fruitful is the speed in which they move when God speaks to them. Some people move at their own pace, doing what they want when they want, other people move at God’s pace, listening to Him and putting Him first. As pastors, we need to be in the second group!

In John 7.6 Jesus said “My time has not yet come, but your time is here!” Think about that – Jesus was saying my time is not your time. A lot of us are living by our time, but we need to repent and start living by his time. If you had asked me the time on Wednesday 7th September, at around 3pm, I would have said it’s an hour before my pastor’s Zoom, it’s a few hours before I do a livestream, and it’s my wife’s birthday soon so I need to get ready for that. If you had asked the Queen of England what time it is, I doubt her answer would have included my pastor’s meeting or live stream, she might have mentioned high tea, meeting a family member or a meeting or something. But it was actually a day before she died! Her time was not my time. 

I have my time, I have a timetable for my life, you have your time, a timetable for your life. but we all should be looking to God for His timing, His plans, His way of doing things.

I cannot imagine putting giving off to a better day. I don’t ever ask how much is in the bank when God tells me to give, I just obey God, knowing it is better for me, better for others and ultimately better for God. However, there was a time I did put God off, for about six months, I knew God wanted me to yield to Him and be born again, but I didn’t do it until much later than God started dealing with me. I’ve met people who know God has called them to be born again, but they haven’t responded and it is decades later! They just haven’t done what God said to do, they are putting it off. What they have done is taken God’s Word and God’s instructions lightly. 

When I was at Bible College, I met students who had been called to go to Bible College over ten years previously, but put it off. I know someone who called me recently when I planted one church telling me God had told them eight years previously to plant a church there, but he had never got round to it. I don’t know what to say. I sometimes see pictures of some Bible Colleges, not all thankfully, and see a sea of gray hair. I have been planting churches for over a decade and I feel I am only just starting my ministry. I am not sure you can have maximum results if you put things off over and over. Now if you have put things off, obey God now and receive grace, but stop doing it – stop taking God’s instructions lightly. 

Lightness to the things of God is one of the problems of the age. We have to take things seriously, life is not Pacman – we only get one life, we only get one run through, let’s use it to make waves now. 

People are not sharing their faith, saying they will do it another day. Jesus said do not say four more months! We have to stop taking that lightly. Stop taking prayer lightly, stop taking prayer lightly, stop taking purity lightly, stop taking giving lightly. 

It’s a really sad truth, but one that is universal is that many Christians never get to where God wants them to be. Indeed some Christians seem to be growing worse! 

One of the main reasons is a lightness to the things of God. We need to be heavy when it comes to God – taking God seriously. You need to spend time meditating about the things of God, you need to spend time in the Word, you need to spend time in prayer, you need to feed from God, listen to sermons. Not the light sermons either, but heavy ones, ones full of nutrients from the Word. You and I don’t have time to waste on froth and bubbles!

A lot of us are too irreverent to God, like His Word doesn’t matter, like His ability to provide and help means nothing. There is so much of this going on, some of it sadly in the name of grace. We need to spend the time listening to God that when He speaks in a church service, that you as the pastor know how to move and flow with the gifts, you know how to heal the sick, prophesy over people and lead people into a deeper walk with God. Pastor, do not take the things of God lightly!

There is a lightness when someone can ignore and fail to implement a godly instruction from a pastor. If I see an usher doing something they shouldn’t, I don’t normally get personally involved, I speak to the deacon. If a business man had a problem with a cleaner, he would speak to the cleaner’s boss. God is as smart as me and as a business man! God tells pastors things to do sometimes, and people should then not take that lightly. If you are in church this week and the pastor says we are going to sing that song again, and again, and again – listen and do it and do it with passion. No one ever died from singing a song over and over, and if the pastor is in tune with God it will absolutely help you encounter God! Pastors, make sure you are in tune with God and when God leads you to do something, do not give a rip about what anyone else thinks, obey God!

In Tree of Life we will see the glory fall on people this year – unless people are light about it, those people won’t see it. Pastors, you should be aware of what was happening in advance, you need to become serious enough about the things of God that you do. A lot of what is going on with the gifts is light not heavy, and it needs to change, we need to develop!

Selah.

Pastors Don’t Do This 24: Being Super Mature

We should all be mature, there’s something ugly about an immature leader, but some leaders get so mature they start believing their own press, they take themselves far too seriously, and they forget how to have fun. They then lose humility. We have to enter the kingdom like children (Matthew 18.3) – and often pastors are the exact opposite of children. They become unteachable. I know a lot of pastors who never listen to sermons, they would never ever respond to an altar call no matter how specific the word was for them and how much they need prayer. 

Many pastors never mature because they are over-mature, they are not child-like. Right now I am in Manchester opening a new church and a huge part of why Tree of Life Church is so successful is that I am child like. I am not over mature. A lot of pastors never enter a new dimension of ministry because they cannot learn from others, they cannot step out in faith, they cannot even say “amen” at a good sermon. That’s true, I know pastors who just sit there silently if another is preaching – woe betide if they get excited. They never lift their hands during worship, they never flow in the gifts. They are too concerned what the cool “older” kids think of them to do what the Spirit leads!

Some pastors are over mature in their preaching, they never get excited about anything they are preaching about, they preach from their mind, from a place of the mind and thinking, they never preach something exciting. Their sermons never wake anyone up. And those people always judge the more exciting preachers – “Oh, they never said much, they didn’t have any substance, they didn’t use enough Scriptures” – where as a child in the kingdom would have received so much from that message!

If you can only receive from some speakers, it is because you are not child-like enough, and are childish. You look down on anointed people and dismiss them as irrelevant even if they are more fruitful than you. Children know they need to learn more and look to learn from everyone.

If you want deeper ministry, you need to learn how to learn from people. If you want a healing ministry, then the first step is to admit you don’t have one yet. The second step is to find people who do and read their books, listen to their CDs, go to their conferences and learn. When they say something you disagree with, don’t go over-mature and judge and look down the end of your nose at them, realize they know more than you and learn something. There is no other way to enter into a healing ministry – you cannot enter into the kingdom unless you do it as a child. You cannot enter into a healing ministry unless like a child. That’s how I did it, that’s how anyone who has done it has done it. There is no other path.

Stop worrying about what everyone is thinking and dance like a child, flow in the gifts like a child, preach with passion like a child, learn from others like a child.

Be humble! If you are not learning from other people, you are not humble. If you cannot tell me who you are actively learning from, you are not humble, and pastor you are heading for a fall!

Just receive. Selah!

Pastors Don’t Do This 23: Receiving Glory from Men 03 Receiving Glory from Men Makes it Impossible to Preach Prosperity

I have taken up a number of very successful offerings in my life. I have raised 30000 Euros in one offering in one conference, I have raised 17000 pounds in one offering in our summer conference, and I once raised nearly 40000 pounds when Andrew Wommack came to speak for us last year. To get up and receive a big offering for any purpose, you have to stop caring about what people think of you. It is that simple. One of the reasons some people cannot receive offerings is that they want glory from people!

A few years ago I wanted all our churches to receive a special offering for a specific reason so I told our pastors to receive the offering and gave them instructions on what to do. One of our pastors point blank refused, and so I went to visit them and I was actually going to receive the offering myself in their church for them, if they did not feel capable of doing it. Oh, it was not ability that caused the problem, it was that they did not want to lose face with people by talking about money. Listen some people will always get upset when you talk about money as a leader and as a pastor because their heart is wrong. I know one of our churches whenever I talk about money, there is one man who shakes his head and gets angry. He is very poor and the reason is because he will not submit his finances to the Lord. You will lose face with people like that if you speak God’s Word about finances. It’s that simple, and you have to get over it.

It’s a very sad truth that some pastors are desperate for the glory of people, they would never do anything to damage their reputation with people. They would quench the Spirit, only teach on some subjects and hold back on looking foolish, all to impress people! I know pastors who are so excited that some ungodly politician likes them or comes to speak at their church. I noticed when I read the Bible Jesus does not invite Pontius Pilate to give a short word before the Sermon on the Mount. He never tried to go and have an expensive lunch with Herod.

But when it comes to talking about money, there are pastors who will never receive a big offering because they are too scared of the opinions of people to say what needs to be said. They are scared of being grouped with those pastors who have abused money, they are scared of people leaving the church, they are scared of upsetting first time guests, they are scared of nasty emails from ignorant fools. In short, they are scared of being disliked by people. They are more concerned with the glory of man than the glory of God.

Do not be like that. If God leads you to speak on money, speak on money. If God gives you a word of knowledge about money, share it. If God leads you to receive an offering, receive it. If God tells you to do this or that, do it. If God tells you to say something about finances, say it. Stop caring what people think and start caring about what God thinks.

Selah.

As an aside, but as a very important point, you will never be able to speak boldly on finances if your finances are not in order. If you are a non-tither, you have no right at all to be in a pulpit for any reason. If you don’t know how to give and give big, how can you inspire others?! If you are in that position, sort things out and do it quickly. Get help if you need it, but sort it out. The church needs people who can speak about finances with boldness, tenderness and wisdom. If we do not, we will never be able to fulfill the Great Commission.

Pastors Don’t Do This 22: Receiving Glory from Men 02 Receiving Glory from Men Will Cause You to Miss a Move of God!

We have, in planting in 17 different locations around the UK, sometimes had to start services in locations that were not ideal, in situations that were not ideal, we haven’t had a worship leader, the room needed a lick of paint – and maybe a clean. It took a while to find, and we didn’t have the money for signs and banners.

I would always be thinking – who would want to come to this church? Who would want to come to this meeting? Sometimes I have made decisions about promoting people who other people did not think were ready or whatever.

Some Christians do choose a church where the admiration and glory of men matters so much to them. I have met those people before. But, you know when God wants to move He does not necessarily choose someone who is eloquent or educated. He might choose someone who was a drug addict rather than someone who was a Bible College graduate. He might choose someone who was a thief rather than someone who was raised in a nice family and with a nice background and nice accent. We have to learn to look past these things!

If we pick a church because of the honour of men, we will more than likely go to the wrong church. You will also marry the wrong person if you marry someone who everyone approves of. Some people want to marry a doctor or lawyer because they want the glory of men. What people want and what God want are not the same. Some people have made idols of the words and opinions of others and will go to the wrong church, have the wrong career and marry the wrong person just to be respected by others!

And as pastors, some pastors prepare their messages to be admired by people. You can either preach to impress people or preach to feed people but you cannot do both, it is impossible. I would have preached some very different messages in the last few weeks if my goal was to be popular and admired. I have spoken the truth about Israel, the nations, the end-times and morality. I could have preached some great messages that would have been far more dignified, I could have preached in such a way to impress the grace people, the faith people, the this and that people, but that is not how we choose what to preach. WE MUST FIND OUT WHAT GOD WANTS US TO SAY AND SAY IT BOLDLY! We don’t need the long words and the fancy accent, we need to be on fire for Jesus. We need to be like Jesus, more concerned to share the truth and have people understand it than preach fancy messages. I like what Paul said in 1 Cor. 2.1-2 in the Message translation:

You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s sheer genius, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.

I was in our Cambridge church plant a few months ago, and I preached such a simple message on being born again and receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. One couple came and left the meeting, and they didn’t realize my wife was outside, and the wife started criticizing the message for being too simple. I am so glad I didn’t preach that message to impress them! I am not trying to please people, I am trying to please God.

What did Paul tell the Galatians when he told them that their legalism was actually a form of demonic witchcraft taking them away from the true gospel? A message we still need to tell people today! He said:

Do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds? Or court favor with God? Or get popular applause? If my goal was popularity, I wouldn’t bother being Christ’s slave. Know this—I am most emphatic here, friends—this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. I didn’t receive it through the traditions, and I wasn’t taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1.10-12 MSG)

Pastor, you have a choice. Preach what God wants you to preach or preach for the admiration and glory of men. You can rarely do both. Pleasing the people is often the opposite of what God wants you to preach! I know churches that have taken messages in tongues out of their services! I know churches that have stopped ministering to the sick in their services! Why? They want to impress people! Some people mock evangelism, mock missionary work, mock healings, mock miracles, and some pastors are so concerned about what those people think. It shuts off a move of God!

Pastors Don’t Do This 21: Receiving Glory from Men 01 What Do You Mean Receiving Glory From Men!

John 5.44 in the ESV says:
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

When you receive glory from other people you cannot at the same time believe and trust God. That’s what Jesus said and I believe Him! One of the reasons so many pastors are not stepping out in faith and doing what God has called them to do is that they like the glory they get from other men. I would say this – either you are listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, or you are listening to the glory coming from other men.

We want to be admired in society, we want to be respected, to be honoured (which is the word the KJV uses). We are often bound by the glory given to us by other men which stops us believing God and walking in God’s plan for our life. We should only be receiving our glory by doing what God tells us to do.

One of the things that makes the life of Jesus stand out so much is that He did not receive the glory from men. He never did something to make someone like Him more, to make someone respect Him, to make someone admire Him. That never moved Him! We must be the same as pastors and leaders. We must be immune to the praises of men, and only be looking to be praised by the Father!

You cannot flow with God and still be looking for respect and honour from people! The glory of men still makes many people do things that are against God’s Word. We want qualifications so we go to godless universities rather than spend time listening to God and doing what He calls us to do. We choose schools for our children, drive cars, buy houses, eat at certain places and wear certain clothes so that other people admire us and give us glory. We do so much to get credit and praise from other men. This is the truth.

Every big decision you will make as a pastor will boil down eventually to this: will I make the choice that makes men admire us and give us glory, or will we do what makes God admire us and give us glory? That is the crux of every big decision a pastor makes. Or any Christian, but it is vital for those feeding the flock!

I have just seen a couple throw their destiny in the bin because they could not do anything that did not bring them glory from other people. It was very sad. We have to not be like that, we have to only seek glory from God – what will make God admire and respect us – choose that and do that.

Selah.

Pastors Don’t Do This 20: Not Bearing Fruit!

What glorifies God? If you asked 100 pastors the answer to that question, I bet you would get 100 answers, and very few of them would be from the Word of God. But the Bible is clear on this: Herein is my father glorified, that ye bear much fruit (John 15.8). The way to glorify God is to be fruitful. As pastors we should be fruitful – our churches should be growing, people should be saved, healed, transformed. People should have testimonies because they got around us. The more fruit we bear the more glory we bring to the Father.

I think many pastors have ignored or forgotten this Scripture. They do not seem to think that pastors should be fruitful or that it matters. Now I am not talking about becoming selfish, having a carnal ambition or comparing with others. I am talking about growing and being fruitful. Sometimes I talk to some pastors and I wonder why they even went into ministry, their goals in life do not seem to be populating Heaven, making disciples and changing as many lives as possible.

I met an African pastor recently, he had a church of over 1000 in his home nation, and he came to London, and is now pastoring 20. Now I am not saying that this could never be God’s will for someone, but our entire conversation all he could talk about was the joy of living in England, and he was not talking about fruit! In my opinion, he was being very fruitful where he was, and moved for the wrong reasons. Are you looking to live in London or are you looking to bear fruit? What has God called you to do? What do you want? An easy life or fruit? Respect or fruit?

I know an elder in our church who was fruitful, every week he had the largest Living Church in our church family and people were impacted by the gospel. But he decided, at the enticement of someone else, to launch out into his own ministry which failed miserably. He chose independence to me over bearing fruit, and that is sad. Pastors choose money over fruit, position over fruit, fame over fruit – are you looking to make a name for yourself or are you looking to bear fruit?

It disturbs me how many “successful” pastors in the UK suddenly feel a calling to the US. There is more money to be made as a pastor in the US than the UK. Is it the US or is it fruit? We have to be sure.

The top of our agenda should be to glorify God and if the way to do that is bear fruit, then the top of our agenda must be to bear fruit. Ask yourself today – what can I do to bear more fruit? Why do we have the conferences we do, why do we keep planting churches, we are we doing evangelism on the streets every week, why am I writing this blog and my tithing blog today when I am busy at a conference? Why do I work as hard as I do and preach as much as I do? I KNOW HOW TO GLORIFY MY FATHER!

God has placed in all of us a desire to be fruitful. Start listening to Him how and start following His leading. I love my car, and I would also love to get a brand new car. But that is not the fruit of the kingdom, the fruit of the kingdom is salvations, healings, miracles, disciples, new churches, new leaders being released, people’s ideas being challenged. How we glorify God is by bearing much fruit.

Pastors Don’t Do This 19: Not Putting First Things First 04 Clean the Inside First!

Jesus tells us in Matthew 23.26 NLT: You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

You see part of being a Pharisee pastor (as outlined in a lot of previous posts in this series) is that all that matters to you is the outside. A ministry couple could be beating each other up Monday to Saturday, but as long as they are all smiles on Sunday as she sings and he preaches and prophesies, that’s fine to a Pharisee.

Jesus calls this kind of approach “blind”. He says wash the inside first and the outside will become clean. Rather than pretending every Sunday, if that couple actually cleaned their hearts, fed on the Word, humbled themselves, started to by faith treat each other well, and so on, every single day – then by Sunday their smiles would be real, the singing would be pure, the preaching would be authentic, and the prophetic flow would be genuine.

To stop being a pretender, we need to work on the inside FIRST. There is a place for tidying up the outside, learning how to preach a little better, wearing the right clothes for your audience, being clear and articulate, singing in key, practicing the guitar, whatever it is. But that is NOT FIRST. First is getting your heart right, your attitude right, going to minister with faith and love and hope and expectancy. Find your place in the kingdom, relate well to the King, and the outside will nearly always take care of itself and you will have the added bonus of being neither blind nor a hypocrite. Selah!

Pastors Don’t Do This 18: Not Putting First Things First 03 Take the Beam Out First

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a very specific instruction when it comes to judging others. This is advice for everything, but it is especially important for pastors and leaders as if they do not judge people properly that can destroy the culture of an entire church, and even split a church. Here is the advice:

7 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others.[a] The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.[b]

3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye[c] when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend,[d] ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Matthew 7.1-5, NLT

What did Jesus tell us to do FIRST? How can we put first things first here? We have to GET RID OF THE LOG IN OUR OWN EYE FIRST. That’s the rule. That’s the principle. Get rid of the log in your eye first.

Specks are the sins of the people around you. Sometimes it is sinners coming into your church, and their lifestyle is just selfish and disruptive. Sometimes it is Christians in your church failing to live for God, stabbing you in the back, and acting in ways that don’t help anyone. Sometimes other ministers will lie about you and stab you in the back, sometimes people will abandon you. These things are not serious, they are just specks.

What is a log here is the presumption that you have the right qualifications and position to stand in God’s sinless shoes and judge that person. That’s the log. When someone stands in that position rather than loving and restoring people, then that someone has a log in their eye.

Now we are supposed to judge others. We are supposed to in love and with kindness and patience, tell others “hey, I can help you get that out of your eye, I can help you live above this”, that is part of spiritual leadership, but FIRST get yourself out of the JUDGE’S CHAIR, and love them and help them find their way to freedom with an examined heart. It’s that simple.

Jesus says if you do not do this, you are a hypocrite, a word that means an actor. You are just a play-pastor, not genuinely helping people. Once you work on the log of standing in the judge’s shoes, you are in a position to help people get the sin out of their life. But first things first!

Pastors Don’t Do This 17: Not Putting First Things First 02 Not Putting the Kingdom First

Jesus doesn’t lie – He says SEEK YE FIRST the KINGDOM OF GOD (Matthew 6.33) and ALL THESE THINGS will be added to you! If we want to live a life of constant increase and addition, we need to SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD first. There are so many things that stop us seeking the kingdom –

  • Some people seek their own ministry empire above the kingdom of God. They are self-promoting, self-seeking and self-obsessed. They never go to conferences to learn, only to speak. They never promote another ministry, they only promote themselves. They elbow their way into platforms to preach but barely have anything to say. They are arrogant not humble, what Jude calls wandering stars. Humble yourself before God and seek His kingdom. Be like Paul, even if people who preach Christ to spite you are promoted, rejoice!
  • People seek things above the kingdom. They are scheming to get stuff, investing in crazy schemes to get stuff. Look for ways to advance the kingdom rather than get money in, and the stuff will always take care of itself.
  • Some pastors are just passive, they let things happen. They haven’t got a plan for next Sunday let alone for the next year or decade. That’s not seeking – the word seek in the Greek is ZETEO – it’s a word that means to get off your backside and actively work at finding something. You have to make seeking God’s kingdom a habit – you need to fire yourself up and ask God for a plan and follow that plan. Everything you need in your life will be added to you as you place Jesus first and keep seeking His kingdom!

Pastors Don’t Do This 17: Not Putting First Things First 01 Not Putting Relationships First

One of the things that will mess up your life no matter what you are called to do is having the wrong priorities. I see this a lot. People prioritize things that are unimportant and important things do not get done. Jesus talked a lot about this, and you can always tell when Jesus is talking about priorities because He uses the word “first”. Let’s look at what Jesus thinks is important and let’s put that first too!

Matthew 5.23 and 24 says “If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift”

In other words, relationship matter more than the service. As pastors we can get carried away with making the Sunday service awesome, but the purpose of the service is to build good relationships. If you are in strife with someone, go and sort it BEFORE the next time you preach, before the next time you have an offering or a service, before you are next at the altar. If all we have is great services without relationships, we might as well go to the cinema and watch a film! Selah.