 Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to Unfiltered. Pastor David, welcome. Hey John. Today pastor, I wanted to ask you what your thoughts are when a pastor belittles or demeans the sheep from the pulpit? When a pastor demeans the sheep, when he belittles the sheep, I believe he's not a shepherd. I believe what he is is a tyrant, a bully. I've seen it. I can still remember as a young Christian, young Christian pastor, hearing the phrase, we're to feed the sheep, not beat the sheep. So that's been in my heart for a long time. I think that there are many who based on their own supposed sense of authority or their own sense of importance, or perhaps their desire to be open, maybe to reveal that they have a great knowledge that people need to respond to. I think there are a lot of reasons people can begin to lord it over the sheep, but past the Apostle Peter, when he was writing in his first letter, he had said that we are to not lord it over the sheep. When Jesus was speaking to Peter, he told them that Peter, you're to be tenderly caring for my sheep. There are so many scriptures that relate to how the Lord ministers to us. We're told by Isaiah that he'll gently lead those who are with young. He carries them in his bosom. So there's a tenderness that the shepherd has towards the sheep. And so any minister who beats the sheep calls some names, and I've seen it from the pulpit to call people names. And I've seen it. I saw a recording of a quote unquote pastor telling husbands that the way they show authority is to tell their wives to shut their mouths. And I don't see scripture anywhere that tells me that Jesus abused the sheep. Even when he was angry, even when there was in his heart a holy and righteous anger, he didn't demean them. He didn't tell them they were worthless or stupid or whatever. So no true shepherd is going to demean the sheep. Nobody should leave a church service feeling less. They should walk out saying, I can be more and I am more in Christ. If there's an area of ignorance in my life, a lack of knowledge and understanding, I should be able to walk out saying, I didn't realize that, didn't know that, I hadn't heard that. And now that I have, I can act upon that. But if I stand up there in my pulpit and I say, this is something that is true and if you don't believe it, you're just whatever, you're stupid. And I have seen that. I've heard that said. That's not a shepherd. That's a tyrant. That's not a person of compassion. That's a person that really ought to take some time with Jesus in prayer and fellowship. And John, I just, that's one of the things that I have a real, I really reject. I just think that there's no place in the pulpit for a bully. You know, Jesus didn't bully his sheep and no pastor out there. That's how I feel about that. And there are a lot of people who are under tyrants and they think that that's authority. What it is, it's abuse. They just don't know it. As you mentioned, you don't ever see Jesus doing that to any of the people that he was ministering to. And you know, I was thinking about that as you were sharing, maybe the person who just lost a loved one or somebody who's going through some brokenness or something and hearing that, you know, one of the, you mentioned the word stupid. That was, for me, that's very derogatory. It's a terrible word. And if somebody calls me that, you know, those are fight words. You know, those are very hurtful. And then to be at the most holy table given the word of God out to use that. No, you don't ever demean. You're there to edify, to encourage, you know, bring exhortation in and all of that. You know, you bring correction, you know, all of that. But my goodness, if I as a father demeaned my son or my daughter, if I said you're stupid, you know, the word stupid in our house, as my children were growing up, was really was looked at as being a bad word. You just don't use words like that. And again, John, I, I think that the many churches are looking for a hero to such a degree that they're willing to be abused by the person that they, that they worship. It's just wrong. Well, pastor, thank you for sharing on that. Again, I've heard just recently of that as well and just didn't sit well. It doesn't. And so, but thank you for sharing. I do want to invite our church family to come out and join us on Wednesday, tomorrow evening, pastor, as you're taking us through Romans. And we look forward to having that study. I want to invite you guys to come out and join us. And so come out and join us Wednesday, even at 7 p.m. We look forward to having you pastor. Thank you for joining us. Thank you guys for tuning in and God bless you.