Please read my only responce to the song “Stay Prayed Up”
COMMENT: Mr. Sapp, I was a big fan of yours however as a Christian I’m a bit confused about your motivation to record the record prayed up. I intentionally watched you on the HOA and was taken back by your conversation with Kandi at the studio. You continued to tell her not to try to explain herself, and that she didn’t have to apologize etc. I’m just wondering is this the watered down version of the word you are teaching in your church?
The bible says “my people perish because of a lack of knowledge.” It also says “GOD would rather that we be hot or cold.” Not trying to come off as judgmental but this is the type of thing that makes the church look no different than the world. So fed up with this new concept of stooping to the worlds standards to reach souls Jesus hung out in places with sinners to reach them but HE never comprised GIS standards nor GOD’s word. Kandi is motivated by money just wondering what’s your motivation?
RESPONSE: Usually I don’t respond to people about things like this however I must this time. The problem with many in the church is:
1.) that we major in minors and 2.) ignorant (not well studied) of scripture. Lets deal with the first, This woman who was an ex R&B singer that sells sex toys and live with her man decided on a show that reaches 10 million viewers per showing (believers and unbelievers) to sing about,,,, Not sex toys, drugs or living with a man but PRAYER!!!!!! and the saints are upset. The lyric says, “I stay prayed up, that gets me by, that how I made it through my darkest time, see I’m a sinner and thats no lie, but thank God my prayers are heard because he knows I try” Wow!!!!! nothing elicit or comprising about the lyric…. So lets look at how Jesus dealt with the sinner….. From my study of scripture the only people he checked was the church (religious people of that day) however the sinner he consistently showed COMPASSION!!!!!!! Examples…… Woman caught in the ACT of adultery Also the Woman at the well……. Never exposed them publicly, dealt with them privately. We as believer major in minors…… So caught up in the messenger that we are missing the message “Staying Prayed UP”.
Now I close with this…Everyone that God used in scripture was flawed and or had struggles…. Let me call the roll….. Moses was a murderer, Rahab was a harlet (whore), David was a murder/adulter and still considered a man after Gods own heart, Peter was a cutting cusser however was in the inner circle of Jesus, Paul was a murderer and made many blaspheme against God however wrote 2/3 of the NT, He spoke through a Donkey and if we decide to be quite rocks will cry out… We say we are christians which means being Christ-like but question peoples motives that model his behavior….The bible speaks about witnessing and that you need to be wise to win souls and Paul says I became all things to all men that I might win some…. Compromise was never done here nor do I condone her life style or life choices and keeping 100 you don’t know the off camera conversation we had. Again big picture 10 million people at 1 time were challenged to PRAY in difficult times WOW!!!! Thats Awesome and Ministry…..
PS: Didn’t spell check because I’m late to a meeting…. Be Blessed
Listen to “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kandi Burruss’ New Gospel Song Featuring Marvin Sapp
To Pastor Sapp I somewhat can understand what you’re saying God did use sinners in the bible. And yes there was a big problem with church people of yesterday as well as today. We don’t know what was said off camera only what was said on camera. I believe you’re trying to reach the lost but I don’t know about kandi. Most singers from my knowledge that try to cross over from RB to gospel fail because of an unrepented heart. God knows all of our motives. Just like the Commadors who recorded Jesus is love and, went right back to RB because of there own motives MONEY. Now the adulteress women was forgiving for her sin after the Lord told her to go her way ,and sin NO MORE king David totally repented from his sin and so did Moses the donkey had no sin to forgive because Jesus died for the sins of man and not animals so lets not get them confused with people that are called and people that are chosen every person will be called by God but every person not chose of God to carry certain ministries forward such as yourself your singing ministry took off because God choose you to do so and he is glorified through your songs. I don’t believe God will get any glory out of what kandi’s during its limited to just PRAISE . Let everything that have breath PRAISE the Lord, but they that WORSHIP him must WORSHIP him in spirit and in truth. Preacher if you think God sent you to her to give her the word then do so by all means. God bless .
Ok, so according to the lyrics, Kandi stays “prayed up” because it gets her by, then confesses that she is NOT saved by saying “Im a sinner, thats no lie” then we go see that she says “thank God my prayers are heard because he knows I try”. However the Word is clear when it comes to sinners who pray. Read John 9:31 “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.” Lets also look at Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” What type of prayer is Kandi saying. Is she using God some Genie in a bottle? I mean she does confess “that how I made it through my darkest time” So that leads me to believe she starts to pray earnestly when trouble hits. Typical unsaved reaction to hard times. Yet is Kandi praying when things are going right? Is she praying for salvation? Or is she going through mechanics. You see, the song to me solidifies to unsaved that as long as you “try” and as long as you “pray hard in your darkest time” that somehow your “good” with God.
David, Peter, Moses and all the other names mentioned by Marvin Sapp are individuals who were not sinners (unsaved). They were people who had already accepted the call of God, failed God in one point or another, repented, and went on to lead a life of consecration and holiness unto the Lord. Kandi cannot be equated with these people. I’ll forever listen to the Psalms of David, the Acts 2:38 message of Peter, and the obediant Patriarch Moses who wrote the first 5 books of the bible. Kandi on the other hand, I will NOT receive her words, lyrics, songs because she is NOT saved and really aint trying to be.
Bottom line, dont equate holy people with unholy people. Do not equate Christian failure with the failure of the unsaved even though BOTH pray, God only responds to ONE and thats the person who genuinly wants to stay saved and is willing to do whatever it takes to please him. If by chance a sinners pray is answered, its only Gods way of showing them the benefits that will come IF they decide to follow Him and nothing more. Its called being soverign.