I just saw a mega church pastor reprimanding people for being late
and leaving early, he accused the people of not treating church with respect
That may or may not be true,
whether or not their hearts are respectful of church
Whose church is it?
The only one who can see in hearts is God Himself,
no pastor, no teacher, no leader,
no matter how well-versed they are in the bible
can see inside of hearts and know the intentions of another human being
That would elevate them to the position of God
And they are not God
None of them should be allowed to be between you and Jesus
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus; 1 Timothy 2:5
Anyone who tries to elevate themselves above you,
who puts themselves in between God and you
Is a false representative of Christ
Jesus is the One we are to worship and serve and learn from
Which means any person trying to get in between you and God is in error
A good teacher will always point you to Christ
so you can develop your own relationship with Him
He is your God, not the person
The leader/teacher/pastor has no right to want you to follow him or her
All of us can learn from others and there are wonderful teachers out there
The bad ones have bad fruit
They have specific directions you must follow that they tell you
instead of pointing you to the word of God
The good fruit would be encouraging you to be Berean (an excellent student of the bible who searches the scriptures for understanding and knowledge)
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 23:1-2
God is not happy with these pastors
Their idea of a good church is a big church
and many of them have used foul means to grow that church,
manipulation, condemnation, and false teaching for itching ears
Jesus told us to follow Him, not once, not twice, but several times
He never told us to follow a pastor or The Pope or any great person
God does love the Pastors who care for the flock like a shepherd should
Jesus is our Shepherd and our relationship with Him should be growing
A godly shepherd points us to the Lord
and the word of God so that we can verify teaching for ourselves
And Jesus answering said unto them,
They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:31-32
We don’t have to be perfect to desire to have a relationship with Jesus
He will honor our efforts and teach us what we need to know
Jesus is able to help us to become the persons He has created us to be
He may send people to help, we all need fellowship
and good teachers are invaluable,
however, we must not forget that seeking the Lord is our responsibility
Following Him, carrying our cross and denying ourselves is what He requires
And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. Luke 9:23