The Ballestero Blog

Pompous Pentecostals

(May the Lord be praised that we Pentecostal Apostolics have been given the honor of hearing and receiving the Gospel truth of Acts 2:38. It is a privilege to live separated from the world. I have no desire to change from this holiness lifestyle.)

In spite of our God-given heritage, too many of us are plagued with a self-righteous, and holier than thou spirit. It severely hinders the work of God.

1. Pompous Pentecostals Are Hurting The Church. They are hurting our church growth. They are hurting our spiritual growth. Saints and sinners alike observe them with disdain.

Pompous Pentecostals won’t speak to other Pentecostals in the Mall or on the street. You see them coming toward you in the mall and you nod. They don’t even nod back. They act like you are invisible. Why?

I have had warmer responses from Baptists and Methodists. Even strangers, that by all appearances have never been in a Holiness church, will readily respond to a friendly ‘Hello’ or a ‘Howdy’. Why can’t we Pentecostals be friendlier? Are we saying to the world, and even to other Pentecostals, “I’m too holy to talk to you?” Whatever happened to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’?

2. Pompous Pentecostals Will Disfellowship One With Reckless Abandon. I’m not talking about disfellowshipping a person or a church because of immorality or doctrine that is contrary to Acts 2:38.  I’m talking about precious people have been disfellowshipped for doing things that fall into the category of ‘doctrines of men’.

Here is a short list of things I’ve seen some disfellowshipped over by pastors and saints.

• Wearing the color red
• Wearing shoes with heels out
• Wearing shoes with toes out.
• Women’s hair not in a hair net.
• Because of no seams in women’s nylons.
• Women shaving their legs.
• Playing Old Maid.

The list is endless. Pompous Pentecostals are inconsistent. Pharisees always seemed to incur the rebukes of Jesus. He was more angry with them than the sinners.

My point is this. What if we Pompous Pentecostals disfellowship someone who God is still in fellowship with? Why are we so quick to cut people off?

How are we going to explain that in the Judgment? God forbid that we should go to heaven together with those that we disfellowshipped.

3. Pompous Pentecostals Are The Only Ones That Are Right. They are the last defenders of truth in their minds. Everyone else is wrong. If they are not in our fellowship circle, they are lost.

Two things will be our downfall… Worldliness and Fanaticism.

Eccl. 7:16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?

Eccl. 7:17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?

There are good Holiness minded Apostolic people who are scorned, shunned and discounted because they are not considered exactly like those that we are comfortable around.

4. Pompous Pentecostals Have Need Of Nothing.

Rev. 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

Rev. 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

Rev. 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Rev. 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Pompous folks won’t receive preaching that involves correction or instruction. They feel no need for improvement.

A fine young couple moved to the assembly I pastored from a church 2,500 miles away. I knew his former pastor preached against wearing watches.

The couple had been at our church for several weeks. One Bible Study night I singled out our new brother who was sitting on the front row. I welcomed him and told him what a blessing he was to the whole church.

“I notice that you do not wear a watch.” I said .

He shook his head no.

“I honor and respect that carefulness in you. Never lose your carefulness before the Lord.

We have some that wear watches in this church. I appreciate the wearers using them for timepieces and not for ornamentation. The best watches are Plantwear.

“But I don’t want you to go out and buy a watch and hurt your conscience because everyone here has one. I don’t want you wearing one just because we allow them here. Do you understand?”

He nodded.

“On the other hand, if you don’t wear one and we do, then I don’t want you to sit there and feel holier than the rest of the church and the pastor because you don’t and we do.

Because once you feel holier than the pastor, he can no longer help you or teach you. You in your own mind are holier than him and the church.

“If that spirit ever gets ahold of you then I am ordering you to go out and buy two watches and wear one on each wrist until you get over that spirit.

He nodded. He bought a watch.

5. Pompous Pentecostals Get Caught Up In Secondary Boycotts. You are my friend’s enemy, so you are then my enemy, because I love my friend. I don’t know what you did, but my friend leaves you alone, so I will too. There has to be something wrong with you if you and my friend are not close friends.

6. Pompous Pentecostals Show Their Prejudices. God doesn’t have a White Church, a Black Church, a Hispanic Church or an Asian Church. He just has a Church. How can we say we love God and hate our brother enough not to want to worship in the same building with him?

I was at a church were several dozen people boycotted the Sunday services because the pastor had personally canvassed and bused in several bus loads of people from the ‘projects’ the week before.

They wanted no one from the ‘low income’ housing development to attend their upscale church. The boycotting of the weekend services by all the ‘rich’ people was to get the pastor’s attention and make him ignore ‘those low class people’

Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. What would it be like in a world where love was felt and people were treated with kindness regardless of income or race?

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Definition – Online Dictionary and Thesaurus

Pompous

Part of Speech:          adjective

Definition:     arrogant, egotistic

Synonyms:    affected, arrogant, bloated, boastful, bombastic, conceited, flatulent, flaunting, flowery, haughty, high and mighty, high-flown, highfaluting, important, inflated, magisterial, narcissistic, ostentatious, overbearing, overblown, pontifical, portentous, presumptuous, pretentious, puffed up, puffy, rhetorical, self-centered, self-important, selfish, self-important, showy, snobbish, stuck-up, supercilious, uppity, vain,

Antonym: (the opposite meaning) = modest

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The opposite of being a Pompous Pentecostal, is being a Modest Pentecostal.

May we all remember the timeless lesson Jesus gave about the Pharisee and the Publican. The Pharisee was proud that he was not like ‘other’ men and bragged on his own ‘godliness.’ The Publican was ashamed and with much inward pain smote his chest and asked for God’s mercy. “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. ” Luke 18:14