Praise Gone Wrong: Don’t Burn Your Bridges – The Watch Letter
The choir was singing. Saints were rejoicing!
“I don’t know what you come to do.… I come to praise the Lord.”
The praise was on fire. But as I played back the Jan. 1, 2022, service titled “Don’t Burn Your Bridges,” I remembered something our Pastor Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn taught before: your shout can’t be louder than your surrender to God.
Yes, we should come to service with praise. Chief Apostle Gunn said we need to rejoice over how he has allowed us to lean on him and pulled us through, especially praising at home first. However, we must ensure we aren’t just “praisers” but committed participants in the instruction of God.
Hearing the service was a washing but also grieving. Among the shouts of joy were voices we would soon not hear any more. Several corrections soon came from the Lord through Chief Apostle Gunn, and some walked away -- physically and spiritually burning bridges. Our surrender, not just praise, is what helps us receive correction.
Chief Apostle Gunn taught from Corinthians about a church full of rejoicing, speaking in tongues. But, in the church, a man had an open affair with and married his father’s wife. In the shouting, where was the sobriety to deal with the sin? We can’t let rejoicing be a distraction from wrong.
As the word encouraged us about God wanting the best for us, there was more rejoicing but when there’s instruction about correction praise gets lighter. Often, when accountability is mentioned, like a song our choir sings says, our praise goes wrong.
Chief Apostle Gunn taught about accepting a person who sinned back into the fold. There was rejoicing, as it should be. But before that he said correction must first do its work and repentance must come so we can welcome our brethren back. Did we rejoice?
Often, we skip the corrective aspect of worship. We want to get to the celebration, but enduring correction is what draws us closer to God, sincerely. We must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24).”
The church Chief Apostle Gunn taught about is in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul wrote: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you … that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned…. Your glorying is not good.”
Chief Apostle Gunn said at first the man didn’t repent of his incest, fornication and dishonoring God and his father. To make it worse, some church folks were offended, i.e., family members, because he was corrected. But through correction, he repented and sincere rejoicing could come because sin was removed.
If the man did not repent, they were instructed to release him as to not allow the devil to further work in the church. Mercy must be shown, but God desires fruit of repentance (Matthew 3:8).
A new year is here. We celebrate the new mercies that come with it, but we must go through correction to be renewed. Chief Apostle Gunn once said if you come out of what God is taking you through prematurely you won’t learn your lesson. It’s vital we don’t go into 2023 without cleaning the inside, so we can have pure rejoicing.
What I got from the message was value sincere/clean fellowship with God and his people; reject the world/sin, whether in the congregation or our homes/family. These are true acts of worship. Here are more notes from the message:
- Provoke our children to give God more with their hands, hearts & their voices.
- You can see when someone calls on the Lord & let’s him come all the way through to deliver them!
- Stop all that praise & get things straight first, deal with the sin!
- When someone is corrected because of error, God can deal with that person. He will work with them & they can be healed.
- If someone in your family is lying/sinning, you must be saved enough to tell them they are wrong & not cloak what they do.
- You’re supposed to be closer to those who are born again. The reason we don’t want to be close is because we want to live different than the family of God
- You can honor & respect your parents like the Bible says, but don’t side/commune with their sin/worldliness. Don’t let your family go to hell because of your connection to them in their sin. You are supposed to show Jesus by separating yourself.
Listen to today's FORREAL RADIO BROADCAST: "Love Not the World" https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=3071770231192169&wix-music-comp-id=comp-kjfzbgmx
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