 Good afternoon, Pastor David. Hi, John. Welcome everybody to a random moment with Pastor David unfiltered. You know Pastor last night's Bible study was amazing as you were teaching the Saudi Ephesians chapter 4 to walk worthy and you know when you were sharing about last night you were given the combined I've read Ephesians many times and and it spells it out the five ways to walk worthy right there right underneath it and and I really realized like wow and it made me begin to think about your Message at Sunday. I have the privilege of having your notes already and Want to tease out some things as on Thursdays. We want to talk about what's going to come up on Sundays and Tuesdays We do occur in events But you know Jesus has been teaching a valuable lesson to his disciples They have been arguing about who's the greatest in the kingdom Three of them went to the Mount of Transfiguration and the others were down and so I can imagine that some felt they had this special relationship with Jesus and almost to a point where look at me and and And Jesus brings starts to share with them the lesson of humility He brings in a child and says you must be like this and And last night when you were talking about walking worthy and looking here at your notes I wanted to ask you is there a heart of competition in ministry? Oh, there most certainly is there's most certainly the at least the The possibility of it and there is most definitely the reality of it that does happen You know because we live in a commercial world We live in a world where the product in terms of what we're producing is very often Intended to draw attention and thus many customers and etc And so the church in many ways can be treated as if we have a product and that in order for us to be Successful there needs to be a lot of consumers, right? so what we do is we begin a competition amongst ourselves and And then people are always willing to go along with that John and say oh I go to this church here because Well, it's such a big church and compared to yours, which is such a small church and all of that I'll never forget. I was in a Local store and a woman approaches me. This is a little while ago now, and but I'll never forget how she approached me and she said Hi pastor David and I recognized her, but I hadn't seen her for a while. So I said hi How are you? She says fine and I always know when somebody has left the church just the way they approach me, right? So she says I went to your church for a long time your fellowship for a long time. You know, I said, yeah She goes but I I now go to the big church And when she said that I got puzzled, you know because nobody'd ever said something like that to me I'd never heard that kind of phrase as it was describing the place that they attend and I and so I I honestly was puzzled John I looked and I shook my head and I said, I'm sorry. I Don't know what you're what you what are you talking about? Oh, and then she tells me the fellowship that she attends and I I just thought to myself how sad that in in and In so many ways, she could have mentioned where she's going And I already had a sense that she had no longer participated with us and all But she chose to To refer to it in a way that just once again It just showed me the merchandising mentality that people sometimes can have now with that said Yeah, there is competition there. There there was at the beginning When the men were arguing amongst themselves who was the elder who was the leader who was the greater and Jesus said what was it that you were? You know disputing with one another along though What were you arguing vehemently with with passion about because they had a three-day walk that they That they had to take from the north to Capernaum and all of that So, yes, they were arguing about who was the greatest and and so Jesus wanted to teach them the lesson of humility And so does that attitude Continue to exist in ministry. Yes, can pastors Begin to think that they are some great one because they're able to attract crowds Yes Do some very humble pastors have a good-sized Group of people listening to them absolutely and thank God for every pastor who has a heart of a shepherd Who actually is is working for the sake of the kingdom? But is it possible for? Pastors to be in competition and to actually inculcate that mentality into their church I've seen plenty of that I've been in ministry for 48 almost 49 years John So I've had plenty of opportunities to see the the the seed of carnality sown in the hearts of people and Unfortunately the Lord The Lord has prohibited that and Paul made Comment about that When people were beginning to say I'm a Paul I'm of Cephas, you know, I'm of Jesus, you know And I'm of Apollos and they were they were Giving on the names of the people that they followed after and and he said well Who is Apollos and who is Paul? We're simply bond-servants of Christ. We're we're his slaves, you know the the only one who really matters is Jesus and when you begin to Ascribe some kind of greatness or special anointing on on on us on me or Apollos or the others Is that not carnal are you not yet mere men is how he puts it So what is what is one of the? evidences of carnality Being man worshipers being minister worshipers and so there are some who succumb to that There are some that actually believe that that is is what they're actually seeking after just the way they do their ministry Just the way they speak of themselves their adventures and those whom they know and the things that they know and things of that nature It has a tendency of causing people to want to associate with this great one And so yes that that seed is there. How do we respond to it? We endeavor to keep the unity of the body in the in the spirit in the spirit And God's Holy Spirit we we begin to to just say you know what? I have a field that God has given to me to to to work in And I'm not going to look across the fence to somebody else's field I I simply want to do what is my assignment and to do it faithfully and unto the Lord And that's the key and you know it as as the disciples that will come across somebody and just you'll share on Sunday Was this part of Jesus's lesson for humility when? The disciples see another man. It is not identified just as someone was casting out demons And I think it was John that says it John says he was questioning Jesus or they were forbidding him Well, what he was doing is and I'll make this quick because I don't want to keep the people too long But what he was doing is basically defending himself Because he had heard the Lord's rebuke about wanting to be great and all of that And so he's basically defending himself against that accusation by kind of like moving it into a different direction You know, I'm a company man Jesus, you know, I'm I'm with you I'm and and all of that, you know in spite of how you're rebuking me right now I just want you to know that I'm very faithful to you and this and that and so the Lord, you know Somebody somebody who is doing a work in my name will not soon speak evil of me So Jesus says you're not to forbid them you're to encourage them because he obviously has has Faith in me obviously though. He may not be in my company He obviously is one of my followers and so so instead of forbidding you ought to be encouraging because once again the Apostles Were supposed to be trainers of those who'd or to go out and do the work of ministry And if you don't see that these this this one and and there would have been others also Is a genuine follower of me because he can't cast out a demon if he's not one of mine You know the seven sons of Sceva pointed that out in Acts 19 You know when the demon would not listen to them because they didn't know the Jesus whom Paul preached So he's saying basically they wouldn't be successful He wouldn't be successful if he were not one of mine So don't forbid them encourage this and so yeah, we need to see that and do that I'm do want to invite you guys to come out This is gonna be actually it's gonna be a great study and one invite you guys to come out to our 830 and 1045 morning services And and invite your friends and family, but also we have our for all those who serve in our church We have a servants ministry this Saturday at 9 a.m. On the mini chapel any of you that serve in any capacity Come join us pastor. We'll give a diva. We'll have a Q&A We'll have some worship and it's a great time for the just all the servants to get together and hear your heart So I want to invite you guys to come out and join us and we do one again remind you Sunday 1040 830 and 1045 invite your friends and pastor Thank you so much for your time look forward to your study and and thank you guys for tuning in one last thing and one last thing This is for those who are presently serving This isn't for those who are curious because on on occasion I've had people just kind of pop in and this is really for those who are presently serving and so I would hope that That that those who are presently serving would show up But those who are not you know start serving and then you'll be part of the part of it and it'd be a good part And we have an Israel meeting also on Sunday after 2nd service for those who are going with us It's our last meeting to get the information packets flight information Everything so encourage you guys to come out and join us and pastor again. Thank you so much for your time God bless you guys. Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you on Sunday