Near the end of the service, a young man (mid 20's, maybe) asked the pastor if he could have a word. He seemed shaken and nervous, pausing as if he were holding back tears, clutching his bible. He takes a deep breath and he says he is standing before his church family to say what the Lord has told him to say. My first thought was, oh boy it's about to be good! See it has been my experience that whenever someone stands before a church congregation to say what THE LORD has told them to say, someone in that church is about to be embarrassed or told off! So I think, I picked a good day to come...Oh don't act like I was wrong, some of yall would have thought the same thing...lol!
First thing the young man does is read the following scripture, from James 5:16, which says, "16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Of course this is a particular favorite verse of mine, in fact, I had recently petitioned prayer standing on this very verse so he had my attention for real this time. Now my thoughts were, wow, this guy must be sick! Well, he was sick, not physically as I imagined but according to him, spiritually.
He proceeded to confess that he needed his church families' prayers because he was leading a double life. He confessed that the person they saw & percieved him to be on Sunday, was not how he lived Monday through Saturday. He confessed he had not been honest with his pastor, who turns out is his uncle, and his church family! He admitted that the only thing he knew to do was to stand before his church family and ask for prayer so he could begin to walk in the ways of the Lord. Then he offered a heartfelt apology to those he felt had been trying to guide him. He said some other things so I'm giving the jist. He ended by saying, "it wasn't the teaching that was bad, I just didn't do the right thing!" I was like "WOW"! Then I thought, Dang, why don't I have any tissue in my purse! (sniff sniff)
Now I gotta be honest, a part of me wondered what he'd been up to outside the four walls of the church, like I'm sure others in the pews were doing. But then I thought, it didn't matter. See, he ain't no different from a whole lotta us Christians with "double lives". He could've been selling drugs Mon. - Sat. but is that any different from telling lies & gossiping Mon.- Sat., in God's eyes, sin is sin and unconfessed sin is unconfessed sin! Bascially what this young man did was admitted he was a hypocrite, meaning he knew the RIGHT thing to do, refused to do it, but made everyone believe he was! In slang terms, he was FAKING THE FUNK!
The difference in him and us is, we ain't about to stand before the church and admit we are hypocrites & funk fakers! I admire his guts and obviously he is like David, he has a true heart for God. And you ask, "Sherry how can you say that? He just admitted he was sinning against God!" Exactly!!! Do any of us trust the Lord that much to stand before the judgmental eyes of man, doing like me, speculating on what type of sinful life this guy was living, and say I am a sinner, pray for me? Trusting that this gutsy move won't backfire! Trusting that the rumor mill won't kick into full gear or that folks will say, sure I will pray for you and bless you to your face and then run your name through the mud at the first chance. A person like this young man, definitely was trusting and believing God to deliver him when he made his confession today! So again I say, yes, he has a heart for His Creator because he was fearful and obediant.
You know I love the book of James. It speaks on many things in only 5 short chapters. Read it when you get a chance. In chapter 1, James 1:8 says, 8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Can't get much clearer than that. That young man said he was living a double life, so I would imagine he was tired of being unstable. So now you're wondering, why am I telling yall this. Am I saying we all need to stand up in church and rattle off our many transgressions? Now this young man said, the Lord told him to do this. So unless the Lord tells you to do the same, you might wanna let the service continue as printed in the bulletin. :)
What I am saying is, Christian believers have all been fakers of the funk in their walk at some point. How do I know? Because the Word says, we ALL have sinned and fall short. Now I'm sure had this young man decided on his own, I need to make better decisions and live according to the Word of God, sooner rather than later, his public confession may not have been necessary, who knows? Bottomline, let's get it right before it's too late and rather than standing & confessing before man, we are standing before God saying, "It wasn't the teaching that was bad, I just didn't do the right thing!" Matthew 10:28, Jesus says, 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. My friends, that's as real as it gets!
