Down With the Homies

4/13/13        Andrew,          about 25

A young man named Andrew in the deli line at the grocery store hung his head when I inquired about eternity.  “I’m a Christian, but I haven’t been following the Lord” he said, clearly convicted.  As we stepped aside to talk further, he told me “I’m like the prodigal son, and I’ll always be a prodigal.  You see, me and the Lord, we have an understanding.”  I asked how he could be running from God like the prodigal son and still be in a right relationship with Him.  He told me how he has returned to the rough streets he grew up on, to change his neighborhood around for God.  “But you can’t talk to the boys on the street like church people do” he said.  “You have to be like them, become one of them to prove yourself to them.  But its rough out there, and I fall into the same sin as they do.”  “What would you tell them if they asked you why they should believe in Jesus?” I asked.  “Well, I would say the only way to true peace is with Jesus, but the truth is, I have no peace.  I can’t even sleep at night.”  “You say you’ve been saved, but what are you saved from?” I asked.  “Well, from myself, I guess, from my sin.”  “But a lot of people don’t want to be saved from sin.  They like to sin. It’s fun to them”  Andrew didn’t know what to say.  The inconvenient truth that he didn’t want to share with his “homies”, because it wouldn’t be cool, is that they need to be saved from God.  From His justice.  From His righteous wrath.  And by watering down this truth, Andrew has lost the respect of his friends as a Christian, and instead has become one with them in their sin.  But before you judge Andrew, take a look around – and within – and see if the same thing isn’t going on in a variety of ways.  Christians trying to share the Gospel by proving that they are just as “normal” as everyone else, attempting to prove one can keep their worldly ways and still follow Jesus. Pastors, some from my own denomination, sharing anything but Gospel truths on the great Roman highway that is Facebook, all in an attempt to be hip, to be cool, to be “down with the homies”.  You like sports, you like coffee, you love your family.  We get that.  But pastor, please, be prophetic, say what needs to be said, share those profound truths you encounter every week as you prepare your sermons.  Jesus said “Feed my sheep.”  Live out your calling.  “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”  (2 Corinthians 4:5)