Blessings on Memorial Day, Dear Friends,
Do you remember the name Jimmy Swaggart? He was a famous television evangelist who had gotten involved with prostitutes and had gotten caught. There was a big mess, and it was discovered that he had actually had a problem with this for years. He went before his church and preached this “I’m sorry” sermon. You might remember it. He said, “I have sinned against my church, and I have sinned against you, O God,” and he wept on television; some people wondered if it were all staged.
But there was one part of his “I’m sorry” sermon that didn’t get the airtime some of the other parts did, but I think it’s rather insightful. He talked about the problems he had as a child, how he started looking at magazines, how one thing led to another, and then prostitutes. Then he said this; he said, “I realize now, now that everybody in the world knows my sin, now that I’ve lost my ministry, now that I’ve embarrassed my family, I realize now that if I had turned to my brothers and sisters in Christ, that I would have been delivered.”
Wow.
Friends, I’ve got to say this: We all need that. I hope there is someone in your life with whom you can honestly share your greatest temptations. And then have that person ask you about it every once in a while, because we all need some accountability. Otherwise, the little dragons in your life become big dragons, and they won’t go away. Confession alone doesn’t get the job done. Simply confessing to God in private is not what the Bible prescribes. It might make your conscience feel a little better, but the sin doesn’t go away, and there is no change.
Lee Strobels in one of his books said this. He said, “When your desperation level exceeds your embarrassment level, then you’re a candidate for the grace of God.” God has given us a tool: one another. Unless we use it, we can confess forever and all we’re doing is treating God like a “cosmic bellhop” and separate ourselves from him relationally. We can get on our knees and confess, yet there’s no change, and the dragons get larger and larger, and have more influence over our lives.
So, what’s winning out in your life? The embarrassment factor, or the desperation factor? What’s keeping you where you are? Would you like to see some change in your life? This is why we’re so big in Imagine Church about community. One of the reasons we urge you to get to know each other and connect with each other is because there is such an open sense of accountability — where there is the freedom to confess, in confidence, “Hey, I’m struggling; pray for me.”
When you confess to one another, there will be restoration, there will be healing. But you’ve got to decide, am I willing to go public, with the right people, for the sake of what confession is all about: change.
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
5501 Highway 55 East
Clover SC 29710
980-999-3500
