Back when some of these televangelist con-artists were soaking the people for money, any crack addict would watch that and say, “Are you kidding me? He’s running a scam.” Meanwhile, Christians are writing checks, saying, “Who do I make this out to?” This shouldn’t be, and yet it so often happens.
Do you know that Jesus said, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8, ESV)? Jesus also said, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
People in the world recognize when you’re being real, and people know when you’re not being real. Don’t try to be like someone else. Stop. Just be yourself. If you want to lift your hands during worship, lift your hands. If you’re going to share the gospel, don’t try to imitate others.
I struggled with this when I first started in the ministry. I’m not a great speaker; I’m just conversational, a sort of ‘what you see is what you get’ person. Back then, though, I could not believe that God could use me if I was just being Jim Cymbala. That was pride, and God had to break me of it. He humbled me in order to say to me, “Get up there and just be who you are, who I made you to be. Leave the results to me.”
This is a challenging thing to go through. A lot of us have grown up in church seeing people and preachers act in a way that Peter, James and John would never act. Jesus would never do the things that many of these people do. People do all kinds of crazy nonsense and then blame it on the Holy Spirit. People outside of the church see right through this kind of stuff. They don’t want any part of this, and who can blame them?
So be real, be honest with God and with yourself. Point people to Jesus, never to yourself. There’s only one hero in the Bible, and people need to know about him.
Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.