Last December, I wrote a sermon called “Some Honest Pastoral Counseling for the Duggar Family,” where I gave some down home and real counsel to Josh, his father Jim Bob and his wife Anna.
Josh Duggar started off with the molestation of several of his sisters, graduated to adultery, to child pornography. His actions were escalating, his wife was supporting her husband, and his family, with few exceptions, were behind Josh.
All the while, behaving – or trying to play the part of the pious Christian.
This family claims to be God-fearing, born again Christians.
There’s a reason I wrote this, and why I’m revisiting this now. Josh is still maintaining his innocence, he was sentenced to to twelve years – now lowered to ten years – in prison. Appeals are still being filed. The evidence however is strong that Josh was indeed, guilty.
His father and mother, and quite a few of his siblings still, to this very day, think he’s innocent. His father is still paying all the bills. The federal government just slapped a lien of over $50,000.00 on Jim Bob’s property for court costs, because Josh is apparently flat broke.
Anna is thought to have moved to Texas, closer to the prison where Josh will be serving his sentence (although this cannot be fully substantiated).
I know this much, my wife would have tossed my butt to the street and had me served with divorce papers on my way out of the courtroom if I had pulled this stuff.
Anna’s being played for a fool. She needs to drop Josh like a hot potato, and not permit his children within 1000 feet of him. She has biblical grounds for doing so, with the adultery alone.
And had the parents done their duty with Josh – and had Josh taken responsibility way back when he molested his sisters – things might be different today, and two of these sisters might not have written him off, as they had done.
The word hypocrite comes to mind.
Josh, Jim Bob, and what remains of this family, are a terrible witness for Christ today. It’s no wonder that when we try to plant seeds – it’s gets tougher to plant in good soil, because the ones we’re trying to reach are pointing to the Josh Duggar’s, the Ravi Zacharia’s, the Jimmy Swaggart’s of the world and asking, “Why should I sign up to be with them?”
Yes, we are all sinners – Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11).
That we were once one or more of the sinners listed starting in verse 9 – but we were washed, sanctified, justified in the name of Jesus Himself. That list:
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
We all fit into at least one of these categories at one time in our lives. But we surrendered our lives to Christ, we threw our sin at the foot of the cross and asked forgiveness, and we found our savior in Jesus.
But then there are those, especially those with a large following, who preach one thing, and live another. When it comes to giving a witness, those seeds fall on rocky soil, or just plain rocks and not take root at all.
That’s a form of deceit, and Paul wrote to the Galatians about deception:
Galatians 6:7 – Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
This verse applies to anyone who tries to behave outwardly holy, but behind closed doors, their behavior mocks God. When their behavior mocks God becomes public, their testimony is worthless.
What’s happened is that our faith has been all but destroyed in the eyes of any person who listens to a testimony from this person.
Josh Duggar and his lack of repentance and acceptance of responsibility has killed his testimony.
Jim Bob Duggar and his pride and the attempted cover ups of Josh’s behavior has pretty much killed his testimony.
Both have been the subject of numerous YouTube videos, almost 100% negative and most made by unbelievers tells you something. It’ll be a long day in hades before one of these video makers would sit down with anyone trying to plant a seed with a testimony.
Why?
Because the Duggars have all but killed our faith. They want nothing to do with it.
Let’s all pray that the seed we sow, falls on fertile ground. Let’s all pray that the ones turned away by the behavior of a few, the Holy Spirit reaches, and if given the divine appointment to witness to one of these, that we’re given the words to reach through to the fertile soil, and not the rocks.
The #Heb10 Church 