Q - Is it a sin to be disrespectful to a man of God?

A - Yes it is a sin.

We must never forget that Preachers that are called to preach are working for almighty God and they are untouchable by men or woman.

Psalm 105:14-15.
He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

It's not your pastor's job to be your friend and tell you what you want to hear, it's his job to tell you the truth from the word of God. If you don't think your Pastor is called of the Lord it is not your decision.

You can speak to him about your concerns maybe he knows something you don't or find another Church that will tell you what you want to hear there's lots of those out there. Yes, sometimes Preachers get out of the will of God but let us leave the disciplining of God's man to the Almighty God.

I - THE PROBLEM OF DISRESPECT
In II Kings 1, The King Ahaziah wanted Elijah to come down to him. So he commanded the Captain with 50 soldiers to talk to Elijah. In verse 9 it seems that this captain said, "Hey, preacher, get a move, what are you waiting for, common men, the King is calling you." The problem here is disrespect to the man of God. Elijah, replied, "you say and called me a man of God, so let us have a little test and fire came down and consumed the captain and the fifty soldiers. The same thing happened on the other captain that was sent with another fifty soldiers in verse 11. In verse 13 the third captain and with his fifty was sent. But this time the captain has a different attitude and fell on his knees before Elijah as he besought the prophet not to hurt him or any of his men. That third sent polite captain was spared because he respected God's anointed man.

II - THE INSULT TO THE LORD'S MINISTRY
May be some families who were typical of a disgruntled church member are having some hard statement or even planning an attack with the man of God because according to them the Preacher is too hard, preaches against sin too much, and is narrow-minded.

In Kings 2:23-24, the young children probably picked up all what their parents are saying and accusing against the Pastors so they yelled to Elisha as being that bald headed preacher so Elijah turned and cursed them not for his sake but because of the insult to the ministry of God. Therefore, forty two children were torn up and supposedly killed by she-bears.

III - LEAVE TO GOD TO TAKE CARE OF THE PREACHER WHO IS OUT OF THE WILL OF GOD
In II Samuel 1:1-16, the Amalekite, knowing Saul was David's enemy, and perhaps expecting he would gain a reward, came to David and told him that Saul was dead and wounded on the battlefield and asked the Amalekite to kill him. David turned to one of his soldiers and commanded to smote the Amalekite and was dead. Then David said unto him, "Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed."-verses 15-16.

The point is if a man of God is out of the will of God, leave him to God to take care of and surely God with his concern on His own ministry will take care of him. Even, if the Preacher is tearing up the church, or maybe you are right and the Preacher is wrong, but, if he's called of the Lord that is God's man. You can live with it or go to another church, but never ever try to get rid of the Preacher. When you try to do it, you put yourself in the position of Saul's Amalekite.

IV - THE AUTHORITY OF THE MAN OF GOD
In Numbers chapter 16, we can see Korah accused Moses of being a dictator and gathered a group of people of about 250 princess, famous, and renowned men to attack Moses and Aaron. They accused Moses of dictatorship.-verses 2-3,13.

They claimed that Moses was a dictator and has no right of leadership to them. No preacher was going to tell them what to do and how to live. Further, they were just as holy as Moses. He was nobody special or different.

These rebellious group of people were attempting to usurp a position and assume powers for which God had neither called nor qualified any one of them. Therefore Moses asked them if God give them the authority-v.10

They openly challenged Moses program, attacked his character and reputation, and set at nought the work God had appointed him to do.-v.13,14. They openly disobeyed the leader Moses-v.14 "..We will not come up."

The Reaction of Moses:

1. Moses was deeply hurt-v.4-5

2. Moses warned the people to not join the rebellion, because they suffer the consequences.-v.26

The Reaction of God is He let the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, those who sided with Korah and that they went down alive into the pit and the fire from the Lord came down and consumed 250.--v.31-35

Some people just will not learn-v.41 They accused Moses of being too hard on sin and of over reacting.

The Result is 14,700 died in the plague when the wrath of God from heaven begun:--v.47-49

Why does God not do the same today when rebellious rise against the God-called men?

Because His people had no Bible in those days. Therefore, he brought immediate judgment on the rebels to prove how terrible in His eyes in the sin of touching His anointed.

We have the proven Bible to tell us. However, though judgment may not now fall so immediately or spectacularly, it only lingers for a season. Judgment will come, will so watch what you say and what you call a man of God. In Genesis 20, when Abraham lied or deceived the King of Gerar into thinking his wife Sarah was his sister. God, however, revealed to the King that she was Abraham's wife to spare him sinning with her. Then God made this significant statement in verse 7, "Restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet," The restoration of the wife should have been in any case, but the fact that Abraham was a Divinely called man made it of immensely more importance.

Let us be sure we understand that God put no qualification to anyone to "Touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm."

That's why for thousands years there have been men and woman that devote their life to studying the Bible, and preaching it's meaning it's a big book and it takes a great deal of time and study to understand all the teachings of the word of God. In today's world these people that devote their life to this divine calling have very little respect but they should be respected as they were in the days of old.

It's very juvenile and disrespectful when someone that has only been studying the Bible for a short period of time thinks they know more then someone with years and years of studying, and it is even worse to be disrespectful to a man of God that has been called by God to preach his word and many Christians are guilty of this and they are unknowing sinning so the next time you start to call a preacher a false teacher you better think twice because you will have to answer to God someday for your actions.

I get emails all the time from so called Christians that tell me I don't know what I am talking about, these people have little to no real knowledge of what the Bible teaches yet they try to teach me, well my answer to them is when you have studied the Bible longer then I have (some 40 years) come back and I'll listen to what you have to say in the mean time I will go with what I know is the true meaning of the word of God. I am a teacher that's why this web site is here I am here to teach you, not to have you teach me.

Many people tell me they don't like the way I am so unsympathetic and I don't seem to care, let me tell you something if I didn't care about you I would not be wasting my time trying to help you, I wouldn't care how you live or what you do if I didn't love you, I am harsh because I do care, I care about you and I love you that's why I tell you the truth.

If I am not honest with you I will have to answer to God for that and I am not willing to stand before almighty God and try to explain why you are going to hell because I didn't care enough to tell you the truth.