 Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Unfiltered. Pastor David, it's welcome back and we had the Thanksgiving break. We had some replays and it was a nice time to spend time with family. Today pastor I wanted to ask you regarding a character that we studied. We you just got it took us through the book of Esther on Wednesday nights and now we're in Ecclesiastes but in this book we were introduced to a man named Haman and when you look at his character he was somebody that had massive ego and and it was proud and ambitious man who demanded that everyone would bow down to him out of a sign of respect. He was hungry for that and when Mordecai wouldn't kneel to him he was extremely angered. Are there pastors that are like Haman? Oh my goodness I'm sure there are. I've met a few. Unfortunately you know it is something the church has had to deal with for a long time and continues to the state to deal with and that is pastors who have a exaggerated consideration of their own importance. I would say yeah that is something that pastors have to deal with. You know that's one of the reasons I would think that that Paul told Timothy that he was not to be ordaining novices into pastoral ministry unless they should fall into the same trap, same sin basically of pride that the devil fell in because pride is one of those besetting sins. It's one of those sins that can take you down if you don't exercise your freedom in Christ and become aware of your own sense of importance and how needed you are etc and all of that. So yeah I think that that kind of sin is especially present in the lives of novices and even sometimes can be present in the lives of those who have become well known in ministry. You know it's amazing how many men went out to start a work humbly seeking God and asking the Lord Father I'm putting together the best message I can in my own limited abilities develop so I'm asking for your help. I'm asking for you to give me deeper insight and wisdom and help me to speak in such a way that it doesn't take away from your Word and it doesn't take away from the glory that goes to you. Help me Lord. I don't want to touch your glory and then God seems to answer those prayers and that humble pastor at one time people in the church could feel comfortable speaking to or approaching becomes the unapproachable one. The one who is regarded as so very important that he himself believes his own press releases and before you know it you can't really speak to him. He doesn't walk around amongst the people you know for whatever reason maybe he's just tired or maybe he's just not necessarily wanting to anymore I don't know but at one time he wanted to be with the people he loved the people they knew he loved them and they loved him because of his service and but somehow he became more important than Jesus in the church and he became the most important one. You know Mordecai was somebody who would not bow before this man Haman and as we went through the book of Esther we saw how that no matter how exalted or honored Haman was it was not enough I mean he walked by and there's Mordecai the Jew as it says in scripture who would not show him the deference who would not give him that kind of regard and he was so upset by that that he he he spoke to Ahasuerus and said rather are certain people that are ignoring your laws and I think we need to wipe them out not just not just the one Jew Mordecai but his entire people and that's how far evil can go that's how far that the need at least in the life of Ahaman that's how far that went to the point where he hated not only not only Mordecai but anybody associated with him right and so is that something that leaders can fall pray to absolutely absolutely the winsomeness the kindness charm the the warmth that at one time made people love that pastor that diminishes I've seen it I've seen it a lot of times John I I hate to say it I hate to admit it but I have seen it and I fear for myself I fear I have had a fear of the Lord in that for a long time God helped me didn't ever exude this sense of self-importance or judge really judge mentalism because people hearing this may think oh you're just a jealous pastor you know and and you know they're they're wrong about that there are other sins I'm dealing with that's not one in particular that I would find myself constantly dealing with it's it's I don't think I'm jealous I think that if there's a jealousy in my heart it's for the things of the Lord and and for the pastor to properly represent the kingdom of God and and a God who is approachable and a God who loves and cares and and a God who who saves not not some pastor became famous because he plastered his face all over town or somehow got himself known by by many and the church begins to elevate and that's a very dangerous place for him this is especially dangerous for the church because of the influence it can have on so many so yeah John we need to guard ourselves against that amen well thank you pastor for that and uh I want to invite you guys to come join us on Wednesday evening pastor you're taking us to Ecclesiastes yeah we're in chapter two chapter two and come on out and we look forward to having you join us and remember that we have our Sunday morning services as well 8 30 and 10 45 we look forward to coming out also check our website for our Christmas information as we'll have services on Christmas on Christmas Eve regular service and then we'll have a Christmas Eve evening service and then a Christmas morning services you can check out our website for that for all of that information we do look forward to having you God bless you pastor yeah I'd like to say this listen if you guys appreciate what we're doing would you let people know because if it helps please continue watching and let people know yes thank you God bless you thank you guys thank you pastor