Reason number three.
Reason number one, they're distracted.
Reason number two, they're discontent with the basics.
Reason number three, they disparage the pastor.
They undermine him, they belittle the pastor, even to the point where they begin to degrade
the pastor sometimes.
Now what do I mean by that?
Well, sometimes if people are not careful, they go to a church service, regardless of
whether it's this one or a different one, and they're just kind of like, all right,
let me see if he's going to make a mistake here.
Oh, he misquoted that.
Oh, that's not the right one.
Oh, that's not correct.
And they become critical towards the pastor.
They can't enjoy or get anything out of God's word because they're so critical of
the pastor, they're just kind of fact checking the pastor all the time.
And that's wrong, folks.
You know, obviously we need to prove all things and hold fast that which is good.
Obviously we need to search the scriptures daily to see if those things are so, but
we should never come to a church service where we're so critical of the pastor that
you can't learn anything from God's word.
We should be able to give the pastor the benefit of the doubt and think, well, you
know, if he made a mistake, he probably just misspoke.
If he made a mistake here and he misquoted that verse, it doesn't mean he's just
like a wicked person or he's not qualified or something.
He's just a human being.
But sometimes people begin to hate church because they belittle the pastor and folks,
it happens all the time.
Okay.
And I'll give you an example.
You know, back in my old church, it was an old IFP church, but I love that church
because that's where I got saved.
That's where I learned about the King James Bible.
That's where I learned about soul winning.
That's where I learned about the family and having a lot of kids and just everything
that's essential to my life.
I learned at that church.
Okay.
And you know what?
Obviously it's an old IFP church, so the pastor is probably not going to like teach
through the book of revelation or anything like that, you know, probably not going
to go deep on doctrine.
And you know what?
Maybe he might even say some wrong things.
In fact, he did say some wrong things.
Okay.
But I knew people who were at that church who knew that about him and you know what?
They struggled in their Christian growth because they were always critical of that pastor.
They couldn't enjoy the service.
They couldn't enjoy the singing.
They couldn't enjoy giving.
They couldn't enjoy soul winning.
They couldn't enjoy the preaching.
And look folks, obviously in a church like ours, we preach for like 50 minutes, sometimes
an hour.
Old IFP churches, sometimes they do like 30 minutes or something.
That was a church that preached for 30 minutes.
Okay.
And you know what?
This person was super critical of that 30 minute sermon.
Oh, it's only 30 minutes?
I mean, over here, they preach for like an hour.
Over there, they preach for like an hour and a half.
Yeah, but why do you got to bring that up though?
Can't you just enjoy the 30 minutes of what you're listening to?
You know, is the King James Bible being used?
Is he preaching anything that's correct?
If there's correct things in that sermon, you know, maybe 30 minutes is all you can
handle.
You know, before you become so critical of the length of the sermon that a pastor
is preaching, I mean, are you a doer of that word of that first point that he gave
in the first 10 minutes?
How about that?
People can, you know, become critical of a church because they belittle the pastor far
too much.
They have these high expectations of a pastor and they think that he just has to walk
on water.
Folks, flourish wherever you're planted.
Grow wherever you're at.
You know, be a blessing wherever you are at.
Now thankfully, you know, you're in a church where doctrine is constantly being thundered
forth from the pulpit, but don't take that for granted.
Don't think that just because Pastor Anderson just gives you all these deep sermons and
deep doctrines, that's all he has to do.
Sometimes he has to go through the basics.
Sometimes it has to be a very elementary type sermon.
Don't belittle him if he does something like that.
Appreciate all doctrines of all the spectrum of the Bible that he is giving out.
Look what it says in Mark chapter 12 in verse number 11.
This was the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes.
And they sought to lay hold on him, but fear the people, for they knew that he had
spoken the parable against them and they left him and went their way.
And they sentenced him, certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his
words.
I'm just waiting for him to say something wrong.
Isn't that a wicked attitude to have?
He's like, yeah, keep talking, I'm just waiting for you to just mess up.
I just want you to say something wrong.
I just want you to, you know, just slip up in your words so I can just catch you in your words.
That's a wicked attitude to have.
You know, I just want you to say something wrong about the Trinity, Pastor Anderson.
You're so big on the tragedy, I can't wait till you just say that one little thing so I can catch you on that.
Make a YouTube video about you.
That's a Herodian attitude.
It's wicked to try to seek to just, I'm just going to dissect this sermon.
I'm not going to enjoy it.
I'm going to record it.
I'm going to listen to it just so I can catch him and him saying something wrong.
That's wicked.
That's evil.
That should never be our attitude when we come to church.
Why do people hate going to church?
Because they have this attitude right here.
Luke 20, verse 20 says, And they watched him and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
Don't come to church with a critical attitude towards your pastor.
Enjoy your church.
Appreciate your church.
Appreciate your preacher.
Appreciate your pastor and everything that they preach.
Go to Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter number 12.
This is a reason why sometimes people hate going to church.
You know, because they've been saved for like two years and they've read the Bible like twice and now they just know everything there is to know about the Bible.
So that happens, you know, if you just get saved, you just know everything.
You're just like a Calvinist.
It's just batteries come included.
Don't sin.
You just know everything is just like everything falls right into place.
You just know everything.
You've only read the New Testament, but you know everything there is to know about God's word.
And all of a sudden you think you're on par with the pastor.
All of a sudden you think you can teach the pastor something.
That's a wrong attitude.