Don't Become Sick as Your Secret

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Hey yo, what up? This your host Tim Pratt Jr. I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. I have one that is very, very heavy for me today, so I am going to strive to watch my cadence. I'm playing with my mic here. I don't know what's going on with it. Nothing mechanical. But anywho, let's stay on topic. But I do have one and it's going to be heavy. It's going to be heavy. But I'm asking if you are doing something, if you're driving, you already have seen the name of the title, so you know what it is. Don't become sick, it's your secret. Don't become sick is your secret. And I believe God gave me this one. I believe God put it on my heart. And I want to challenge us today. This one is personal. I can relate to it so much because there are so many things that almost destroyed your boy. Like, I would not be married to the beautiful wife that I have today. I would not have probably the daughter that I have today, the boys that I have today. And not just in that context. I mean, even before I got to her, uh, before I even like met her, your boy, man, I grew up, I knew all the antics, the church lingo, and I was living in a lot of secret sin. And secret in the context of things that I was carrying. Uh, secrets are heavy. Like, we know that secrets are heavy. And when it comes to secret sin, like, let's be honest, like, they sit in the dark corners of our souls, like, straight up. I mean, and when we don't deal with them, like, deal with them properly, like, oh my God, it's, it's like they grow stronger and stronger as we feed them with silence. Like, for me, when I was feeding these things with silence and avoidance, meaning that I knew that there were secrets in my life, but I would remain silent about them and I would avoid them. I was essentially, uh, disobeying what the Bible says in James 1:14-16. So we— and we know, like, if you're very familiar with your Bible, we know that James 14:16 warns us about how sin starts. It starts very, very small, uh, and if we leave it unchecked, it matures it, and it's, it's just going to continue to build and fester, and it matures, and, and eventually it's like boom, it leads to destruction. So like I say, the title of this episode is Don't Become Sick Is Your Secret, because it's an invitation to not humiliate you, not to humiliate myself in it, because I'm going to be very transparent, but I'm going to be balanced. I'm going to be balanced, but I'm going to be very transparent, because again, this is an invitation to expose the hidden struggles before they consume you. Let me say that again. This is an invitation to expose the hidden structures before they consume you. So if you're not dealing with any secret sins, you might want to skip this episode or whatever. But if you know somebody, if somebody's on your heart, I want this episode to be as if I am sitting with you right now. I want you to really hear what I'm saying because there are a lot of secrets that's taking people out of here. And one is because they believe that they can't be truthful to the body because people can't take them. And so then these things stay in isolation, like isolate, not solitude, but isolation. So the enemy wants to isolate you so he can deal with you one-on-one, and you feel like no one can help you. And that's why I said in the opening, they sit in the dark corners of our soul. Or he has you sitting one-on-one and talking and engaging with somebody that's— you shouldn't be engaging with. This is how affairs have started. A man or a woman is sitting one-on-one with somebody that they shouldn't be talking to, that's not their spouse, and they keep feeding into it. Boom, before they know it, they knocking boots with one another. This is how molestation grows and festers in a person is molesting a child. I told you we're going to be real with this one today. Like, this, this episode is going to be very weighty, and I really need you to pray for me because it needs to be talked about and it needs to be dealt with. And a kid is being fondled with and they're being told like, hey, don't, don't, don't say anything, don't do this. And that kid holds that secret and they become sick. Sick is their secret. Start acting out and doing things and they don't know how to rationalize. And then now this carries effects on their relationships and people that they deal with, trust issues and all these type of things, kid on kid stuff. Or it might be that person that's trapped in pornography and your spouse is trying to wonder, why aren't they attractive? I don't know what's going on, it seems like they're distant. And you're trapped in pornography. You're driven by someone on the screen, and now you want to put your spouse in all these type of positions and things of that nature because you're seeing entertainment, and you see your spouse as an object versus the person that God brought you to, brought together and joined together. But you can't confess it. And again, so it's like it sits in the dark corners of the soul, and I can go on and on and on. The alcoholic the person that's smoking, the, the person that's living a double life. And like I said, it doesn't always have to, uh, around an affair. You could be fornicating right now knowing you shouldn't be in the bed with that person because they're not married to you, and you're looking for commitment, but all you keep getting is this level of just fornication. And it's like, I'm looking for deep intimacy, but I'm looking for deep intimacy with no commitment. Like, these are the things. And so now you're holding this secret in, and now it's like, I'm entrapped. And, you know, and it just leads to things that God never intended. So I just want to talk to you for a little bit, or whatever yours is. This is not a judgmental podcast, but it is a podcast that I pray, and I'm trusting in God, to lead to liberation. So we're gonna, we're gonna jump into it here. Uh, like I say, this one is weighty, very, very weighty. But bear with me. So I want to kind of like just really— I typically follow like a 3-point flow, but this one I'm just gonna go kind of really off the dome. I wrote down, like I said, James 1 through 14 and 16, uh, Proverbs 28 and 13, and James 5 and 16. So I want to just talk a little bit again how we open up, how sin begins, how sin begins. Because remember what we said, James 14 and 15, it paints this vivid picture. If we really track it, it paints a vivid picture of how sin— um, I'm sorry about the feedback, I'm not going to edit. Let me adjust my mic real quick. So it paints this vivid picture of how sin progresses. It talks about in the scriptures basically like how temptation arises when we are drawn away and enticed by our own desires. Like our desires. This is not a test from the Lord. This is our desires, and something we are desiring that's not of God. But this is what we have to— and, and I was, as I was kind of studying and praying, I was talking to my wife about this episode, just looking for insight from her, and she gave me a passage with Samuel, uh, and Saul, and I couldn't find it, but I really wanted to get that one. But I had to be obedient to get this episode out, so I'm gonna find that passage, and it's probably going to be a part 2. Like, once I find, I can kind of just really study it and pray and ask God, help me dissect it. But I'm going to use these passages of scriptures right, right here for this moment. But this is what we have to understand, people. Sin is present. I mean, if you, if you think about it, it's, it's like seducing us when we allow our will— yeah, thank you, Holy Spirit— our will to bend towards its allure. Like, it's desire— it desires to lure us in. And so then when our desire matches that, it's almost as if— if you think about an illustration I can give you just off the top of the head right now is, um, Lord help me, a fisherman. Think about a fisherman that uses bait to lure fish. It has the bait out there and all it's hoping is that fish bites. Now when that fish bites the bait, it's not looking to get yanked up. The whole intent is the bait— it's like, I wanted you to bite down on it so I can rip you out of here, capture you, kill you, take you home and eat you. That's what the fisherman's thinking, or sell you, whatever. That is what sin does. I remember— I can't, I can't remember who to attribute this quote to, but it always talks about when it comes to the devil or his imps and demonic forces and things like that, the price is never the true price up front. And so this is a very dangerous game when you're a believer and you know what not to do. But again, this is not here to judge, this is here to bring you into exposing it so this won't consume you. So if we follow this and we, and we trace this line of thought, the fish desire for the bait— like, the fish has a deep desire, like, it just wants to get the bait. But it's blind to the hook that wants to hook it in. And this is where, man, I'm trying to tread lightly, uh, with this one, but no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm done with that. I'm not gonna try. I'm just gonna be real. And this is the similarity when we allow unchecked desires to grow, when we allow these unchecked secret sins to grow in us, these things that we won't expose and, and deal with. And so what happens is Uh, they, they lead us to sin. They lead us to sin, which the Bible tells us leads to death. Not just this spirit, just this spiritual separation. Yes, all of this, it breaks fellowship with God. But when we really think about it, when we are sick as our secrets, we are lost. Like, like, straight up, we are lost. Because I was telling my wife this, it's like, you know, it's kind of like you can't really be free around people because you know you're living a double life. Like, it's, it's almost as if, man, I want to completely let go, but somebody knows something about me. I'm doing some things that I don't want to— I don't want to go really hard for God because this person can expose me. Or this can expose me. And so it keeps us— it really keeps us at a complete loss of freedom and identity in Christ. That's what I was searching for. It keeps us at a complete loss of freedom and identity in Christ. And so then it, it, it leads to like this, this concealing of it. It leads to this concealing. This is the danger of concealing sin, because when Proverbs 28:13— Proverbs, yeah, Proverbs 28:13— it reminds us that— matter of fact, let's read it. Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. In other words, keeping sin a secret does not make it disappear. Let me say that again: keeping sin a secret does not make it disappear. It festers and it grows. You can take it from your boy, I— like, I have been there. I, and I, I hated it. Like, I literally hated it because it, like, I was like, all I had to do, everything I can trace back to my life from a young boy to my teenage years to my young adulthood to in adulthood, I wish I would have confessed it to someone that could have helped me. Like, straight up. But if I let it fester and it go, and that secretness, it thrives in darkness, it thrives when it keeps you away from exposing. And that's a lot of times why you find yourself repeating it over and over and over. Very rarely do people do things just one time if they don't jump out in front of it or they don't yield to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm not saying it's not possible because it is. Because I have done some things, okay, that's too far. Thank God for his conviction. I'm not doing that no more. I have. But it's rare. It's rare. And this is what makes it dangerous. It becomes rare because a lot of times if we don't yield to that initial prompting of the Holy Spirit that's convicting us, our hearts get a little bit more hardened and hardened. And whatever reason that we're doing it, we get sucked more into it because it thrives in darkness, it thrives in separation, it thrives in isolation. And then it's, it's almost as is like the power— it, it's— Lord, help me say this, man, because I'm really doing this one off the top of the head because I just got to be obedient. And this is why the, the power of sin gradually increases the longer it remains hidden. It just, it, it feels like it gets more and more power and we get weaker and weaker and weaker. And now we're caught up. And I know a lot, I've read some commentaries about James 5:16 that talked about what this was more so in the context of if you sin against someone else, confess. And so it's a casual reading, but I still love the principle of James 5:16 when it encourages to confess sins to one another. But see, this is the thing, you have to be prayerful. There is somebody in your— well, let me— if you, especially if you're a believer, if you're a believer and there's nobody you can turn to because you're dealing with a secret sin that you can't go to and confess it, and that person is equipped through the power of God to help you and help liberate you through the power of the Holy Spirit, you need to check that. You really need to check that. But I just believe by faith there is somebody in your life, whether it's a parent, a grandmother, a grandfather, a brother, a sister, a local member, a close friend, a minister, someone that is waiting. That is waiting. Not that they might— they might not even see it, but they're waiting because they're postured to help you. But it's a trick of the enemy to keep you in denial because the enemy wants it to lead to shame. But God wants to liberate you. He wants— like, you should— if you're listening to this, you should be convicted. I don't want you to slip into guilt and shame and say, now, just really— no, no, no, that's not what I'm praying. Don't let the enemy twist and mess up your mind. What I want this to do, through the power of God, is to lead you to be convicted and for God to liberate you, to move that shame to healing. And this is what I love about the principle of James 5:16. With confessing. Confess to someone that can cover you. They're not going to expose you. They don't have a— they're not driving around with a sunroof top. They're not driving around with a, a, a drop top where as soon as you say it to them, boom, it's leaked out. No, they're going to cover you. Their roof is solid, but they're going to deal with you accordingly, and it's going to hurt. But I just believe spiritually, through the power of God, that they're going to be surgical. With it. And I'm praying for that person as well, because again, these things need to be dealt with. If someone is touching on you, if you're a child, a teenager, you need to confess it. Go find a trusted adult and confess it and let it be. Let the consequences— going to be the consequences, but do not carry that into your life. And then you have a man or a woman is looking and waiting to marry you, and they don't even know how to relate to you because you are sick as your secret. Your spouse is desiring to love you and want to move things forward with you, and, and it's totally been praying that God just bless the marriage, and it can't even move forward. Because why? Because your secrets are secret, and a lot of times you're projecting on them the thing— the secrets that you're keeping. The enemy wants to destroy you, and not just you, but he wants to destroy your family. He wants to destroy what God has ordained. And there's too many people walking around here sick as their secrets. Now, this is not again to just go exposing people all willy-nilly. That, that's not what I'm saying here. But if you have been molested, anything, especially if you are a kid— now, if you're an adult and you didn't go to therapy and got counseling to help, I would, I would say, you know, if God leads you, leave it alone. If you free and been liberated, thank God. But for that 10, 11, 12 and down, or whatever, around that age, and you wrestling with it and think it's your fault— no, no, confess it. Confess it. Because you got a lot of life to live through the power of God. So confess it. But this is the danger of, of concealing sin. And like I said, this is why I love James 5:16, the principle of it. So as we have unpacked James, like Again, I love the principle, but as we has looked— as we have looked at it and we see that the desire grows because we don't deal with it. But even we can think about Jesus when he reiterated in— I believe it's Matthew 15 and 19— when he was essentially explaining that evil originates in the heart. Like, truthfully, I remember reading in Tony Evans, uh, commentary or one of my study Bibles is that he was saying the enemy can only provide the context He can't make you do anything. He can only set the stage to drive out or to bring out what's in the heart, and the heart is deceitful. So whatever you feeling— oh, I just feel it in my heart— if that— if whatever you feeling in your heart is causing you to live in sin, especially this secret stuff that, that you don't want to expose and you know that's wrong Like, that is not of God. That is an evil, and it's a twisted heart, and it needs to be dealt with. It needs to be regenerated, and it can only be done through the power of the Spirit. Listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Listen to the conviction and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Do not, do not— I repeat, do not reject it, because all it's going to do, and it's going to— you're going to become more hard and hard and hard. And what you don't want to do is play a dangerous game of God turning you over to your desire, where it's almost if you don't have a conscience of what you're doing anymore. It's a dangerous game. And trust me, I can go one-on-one with you and not just talk to you from a theoretical standpoint, but I can talk to you from what I know, what I have lived, what I have experienced, and what I have counseled in on both sides of it. So listen, I— my desire in this episode, again, it is probably a little bit all over the place. I don't know how my train of thought in it because— but it was just when God put it on my heart and he was like, son, just speak to it. And I just like, Lord, I'm gonna have to trust you. I'm gonna try to organize my thoughts. I had to drop— and this is probably going to be a bonus, this bonus content— I had to be obedient because true freedom begins with acknowledging sin and turning to God for transformation. Listen, like, I understand that there are addictions out there, compulsions. I understand that there are sicknesses out there, but at the same time, if— like, don't hide behind it. I know it's some stuff out there that I, I can't even speak to, but if you are a believer, what I am stressing to you: do not avoid personal accountability. If you know you're wrong and you living in something that's secret, a secret sins or secret sins, as this episode, don't become as sick as your secret. Don't become— like, this episode is, it's hard for me because the reason why is because I have been through so much. I'm sure you have too, if not going through. But one thing that I, I I can assure you, it's like, I'm going to always be careful with my transparency, authentic with everyone, but I'm going to be very transparent in this one. But I'm telling you, one of the things that I strive— and I was, again, I was telling my wife this— I think about my kids, I think about people when it comes to like the gospel and all of that. I do not— I repeat, I do not want to see people go through battles that they don't have to go through. All because, man, you can just confess and walk this thing out with somebody in life, walk it out with another believer, a more mature believer. So again, I just want you to think of us— of sin as like a small fire, and when it first starts, it's manageable. So that's what, that's what you're experiencing now. It's like, oh man, this is manageable. Like, oh, I can, I can really manage this. I can, I can save it. And then a spark Lord help me. And, and then spark become extinguished. It's extinguished. It's like, okay, I managed it and all of this stuff, but then it's left unattended and it— and something else sparks off. And now all of a sudden it grows and it's this raging blaze that consumes everything in its path, and now you can't manage it. It's unmanageable because it's destroying a lot of stuff in its path. And again, when unchecked, sin leads to a point where it defines and controls us. It defines and controls us. And so this mirror— I want you to really think about this— this mirror on the— that God uses, which is the Bible. When we engage the scriptures and we find ourselves out and God rebukes us, the power of the Holy Spirit rebukes us, where are you going to go from there? Where are we going to go from there? It's all inclusive. Are we going to deal with it and confront it? Are we going to— and yield to God? Or we're going to make a choice and allow the sin, that sin, to become our master. Because now we done made a choice. And this is the dangerous thing. I would rather for you to just do it out in the opening than to do it in secret. I remember this guy, he was talking on a, a sports show a while back, some years ago. He say, man, I truthfully have more respect which is— he don't respect racists, but he was just saying in this, in the context of this episode, he said, I respect a racist that's just upfront with it than someone that's a racist and you smiling in my face every day, but you secretly hate me. That person is more dangerous than the one that's doing it out in the open. I believe they can apply to secret sins, man. So what's the practical application of this? Confess. Start confessing to God right now. Invite God into your struggle. When we— when we surrender our struggles to God, he transforms those desires. And this is the beauty. In Romans 12:9 reminds us to renew our minds daily, allowing God to reshape the way we think, feel, and act. You can only do that by his word, by being around other people, around content that points us to Jesus. When we're sitting up watching all this filth and this crap on TV, that's what's renewing your mind, and that's what you're going to do. I don't care how strong you are as a believer that you think you are, if you're renewing your mind in a bunch of this theological garbage and this, this, this crap on TV in the context of just a lot of sexual immorality and just, just so much stuff, that's what you're renewing your mind in. You don't— I tell people like this, and I probably did this on another episode When you think about it, you don't have to have no intentionality to— uh, Lord, help me— you don't have to have any intentionality when it comes to renewing your mind in, um, sinful things. You don't. You don't have— you don't— yeah, thank you, Holy Spirit. You don't have to have no intentionality of renewing your mind in the flesh, but it takes great intentionality to renew your mind in the things of God because there is always something lurking to point you to the enemy, to point you to your flesh. But that is not the case with Christ. So you want to, you want to invite God into your struggle and allow him to, again, to reshape the way you think, feel, and act. You want to confess. You want to confess to someone. The vertical is very important, but you need to be accountable to someone other than God. You do. And I know we hate that word, but you need to be accountable to someone other than God. Confession is not about exposing your weakness to be judged. If they're judgmental, don't go to them. But it's about creating a space for healing. This, this person or people can help you. When we confess our sins to God and trusted individuals, we bring light to the darkness, cutting off its power. Prime example: if I am struggling with pornography, if I'm struggling with sleeping around on my wife, or whatever it may be, drinking, I can be praying all day, but it is a different heart, it's a different posture, or whatever the word I'm looking for, when I'm accountable to Joe or Steve or Chris. It's like, hey Tim, let me see your phone, man. Hey Tim, you hit the bottle? Hey Tim, how things going on with you and Naisha? Are you just with Naisha or you with somebody else? There's a different level, man, because it's like, oh man, it's a face now that I'm talking to. I don't want to keep lying to him. So confess. Let people into your life. Let people into your life. And last, replace isolation with community, the right community. Secrets isolate us. And what— and like, hear me when I say this: secrets isolate us not from the people that want to keep us doing the secrets It isolates us from people that desire to see us liberated from the secret. That thing stinking, bro. God gave me that right on the spot. Secrets isolate us. That's why I can't say it again. Secrets isolate us, but a community restores us. So surround yourself with people who encourage accountability and grace. A healthy community will challenge you. A healthy community would challenge you— thank you, Holy Spirit— without condemning you. A healthy community would challenge you without condemning you. So as you just reflect on this episode, we're almost 30 minutes in. Like, if I could just say, you know, from just personal experience— and Lord, help me say these words the right way— uh, sin thrives in secrecy. Sin thrives in secrecy, but healing, like true healing, it happens in the light, it happens in exposure. But your secret, whatever you're going through, it does not have to define you. It might hurt some people, it really— it, it, it could, it could tear some things up, but even in that, I pray that God gives you the courage to step into exposing it. Because the longer that sin stays hidden, even if it's just in your heart— Jesus talked about this in Matthew 5-7 with the Sermon on the Mount, the heart posture. Somebody can say, well, I've never done this, I've never done that, but you, you did it in your heart. You're just as guilty. Because a lot of times when people are exposed, I've always said this— not always, but I've been saying it recently— It started in the heart first and it was never dealt with. But when that thing stays hidden, the deeper the roots grow. But the power of God, man, if you do the hard work— what I have learned is that God's mercy will uproot it. And although it might be some stubborn weeds, might be some things you have to wrestle with His power can still uproot it. So right now, in this moment, if I— if you, like I say at the beginning of this episode, if it was you and I just sitting together, I was sitting beside you, and I just want you to really hear me. I want you to ask yourself, what secret am I holding on to? What secret am I holding on to? Or what secret am I flirting with? What secret am I playing with that's keeping me me from truly walking this thing out, God— how God wants me to walk out privately and publicly? Because we say a lot of things externally, but can we say the same things internally? Because you can lie to me all day, but you can't lie to Christ. You cannot lie to the Holy Spirit. And then I want you to think about exposing your struggle to God and somebody that's trusted. I know I'm saying redundant, but I just really want you to get this message. I want you to really think about exposing your struggle to God and someone that you can trust. That's not about shame, but that's all about freedom, as in Proverbs 28:13 says. Because today, or in this moment right now, you can take the— you're either your first step or another step or whatever, but you can take a step towards breaking the cycle and don't let your secret make you sick. Don't let your secret make you sick. So, Heavenly Father, Lord, we come in today, Master, thanking you for your grace and your mercy. God, thank you for renewing us, shaping us, challenging us, correcting us. And God, right now, the soul that's on the other side of this microphone, I pray right now for this person, this person, and whatever that they're dealing with internally, whatever secrets that they're holding that they cannot be totally liberated. Because God, I've been there, I've been there. And even though my journey was very, very painful, I can look back and I'm so thankful. And the only thing that I, I say is that I wish I would have done this sooner, or I wish I would have never done it at all. And what I mean by soon, I wish I would expose it sooner so I could have been liberated, because it was like hell and a double-minded person walking around. And so God, right now in this moment, my desire through the power of God is not for this person to play with this, because it is a very dangerous game to play with secret sins, because it leads to self-deception. And I do not desire for this person to be turned over to the point where they can't even see themselves. So God, I ask right now through your power, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that you liberate their mind, open up their eyes. God, that your anointing, that the power of God is so strong that it removed the scales and that they can see their self and they can see that they are loved. By you, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came just for them, and that he has left the advocate because of their acceptance, and that the Holy Spirit rises up within them through the prompting and the yielding, and they ask with sincerity God, what must I do either to be saved, or God, what must I do to truly repent and come back into you and live my life that is pleasing and acceptable and walk in integrity? God, I'm not gonna live my life, an opposite life privately, and saying something totally different and walking in self-deception. Because the thing about self-deception is sometimes you don't even know that you're deceived, if not all the time. So God, I ask right now in this moment that you just touch him. And as my voice fades away, God, I ask that the Holy Spirit continues to minister and do what only you know how to do with helping bring this person into the light of Christ. Be blessed. Jesus' name. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student of Life podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothyprattjr.org. Once again, thanks.