As many of you may know I played keyboards for Jimmy Swaggart Ministries several years before his ministry was involved in controversy and scandal. During my time with Swaggart I became more personally acquainted with him. He was an interesting, intelligent and thoughtful man. Twenty-years older than me, I looked to him as someone from whom I could learn things about ministry, walking with Christ and perhaps gain some understanding about how these great men of God lived.

There are two points that I want to make about Swaggart that are cogent to the title of this article. The first, is a sermon I heard him preach on several occasions. The title of the sermon was, "That Thing". Swaggart was passionate about this message. In hindsight I can understand why. Essentially, the message asked a question of the hearer; 'What is the one thing in your life that prevents you from being, doing and living all that God has intended for you?' His message would go on to explain that the limiting factor in your walk with Christ, and that which He has purposed for your life is 'That Thing'. That one stumbling block that prevents you from fulfilling the perfect plan God has for your life.

The second point is a story I have told many times over the years...
Swaggart's crusade team was a large group of people, including band, backup singers and a variety of support personnel. If you counted everyone it was at least 50 - 60 people for every three-day crusade. Accommodations for that many folks could not have been cheap, not even in the early 1980's. But Swaggart and his entourage stayed in the finest hotels in every city we visited.

Now on the night of this incident we had completed the Friday night service. We, meaning the crusade team, band and singers, were taken to a local restaurant to have a late dinner. By the time we were finished eating and transported back to the hotel it was well past the early hours of Saturday morning. I'm almost certain it was past 2:00AM. 

Swaggart's staff did not typically occupy the same floor as Jimmy and his wife, Frances. But on this occasion we, meaning my former spouse and I, were checked into a room that would require us to walk past the Swaggart's suite to reach it. Customarily, Jimmy and Frances would get a suite with adjoining rooms so that he would have a place to study, pray and prepare for the crusade services.

As we are walking down the hall to our rooms we could hear what sounded like a man crying loudly. As we passed that room we realized it was the Swaggart's suite and that what we were hearing was Jimmy Swaggart crying out to God in lamenting prayer. We were stunned. We stopped in our tracks and stood in that hall listening to this man pouring his heart out to God.

I am one hundred percent certain that Swaggart had no idea we could hear him. I do not think that he was putting on a show at 2 o'clock in the morning just in case somebody walked by his room so he could be perceived as sincere. What I was convinced of then, and remain convinced of to this day is that Jimmy was sincerely seeking God's help, grace and mercy to deliver soul saving, life changing messages to the saved and unsaved alike.

What I heard Swaggart doing that night had a big effect on me personally. Especially some years later when in 1988 Swaggart revealed on national television, with every major news outlet covering the press conference, that he had failed. With tears, Swaggart said, "I have sinned!".

As details emerged about the sin he had committed I realized that Swaggart's sermon, "That Thing", was the reason he was so passionate when he preached it. At the time of his confession in 1988 Swaggart Ministries was on the threshold of reaching the entire world via television with the gospel of Jesus Christ, including communist China. That dream was lost because of that thing.

There is a serpent in your garden! It is that which you do, or fail to do even when the Holy Spirit is whispering, "You know I'm watching, right?". We have a psychological designation for it; We say it's cognitive disonance. Swaggart called it, "That Thing". King David called it presumptuous sin.

Whatever you call it know this; It cost Adam and Eve paradise in the garden of Eden. It cost Moses the promised land. It cost Jimmy Swaggart a billion souls to preach to in China.

THERE IS A SERPENT IN YOUR GARDEN!

What price is that snake demanding of you?