To The Church: The Watch Letter

In Ephesians 4 and 5, as the Apostle Paul wrote TO THE CHURCH of Ephesus, he was calling out ungodly conduct – not among those in the city but those sitting in the pews.

Paul wrote: “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting …”

In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John wrote down the Lord’s letters to the seven churches, and among them again was the church of Ephesus; “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent …. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

Both Apostles also wrote of the good things the church was doing, but it was like they were saying TO THE CHURCH, “Don’t fool yourself. Yes, you may have some good characteristics, and look clean, but the Lord can still smell a displeasing order coming from your pews”.

During Today’s FORREAL RADIO BROADCAST with Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, which was titled “Don’t fool yourself,” we learned that God is expecting to smell a sweet savor from our lives and from the church. We cannot cover our sin with the perfume of just coming to church or looking like church people, because the smell of depravity will overtake it. We may foolishly smell a fresh scent from ourselves because we think we are doing better than people who are not in the church, but how do we smell once our scent reaches Heaven? Do we smell just like the world?

In Revelation, John also wrote the following about the churches: following false teaching, compromising, being stumbling blocks for others, committing fornication, sacrificing to idols, devoting to false prophets, committing immorality, being spiritually dead, being lukewarm, not growing in the spirit, and chasing after prosperity.

In Ephesians, Paul called out: Lying, Wrath, Bitterness, Stealing, Corrupt Communication, Clamour, Malice, Sexual Sin, Whoremongering, Vanity, Gluttony, Drunkenness, and much more.

How could all these horrible things be named among the saints? Perhaps they were deceiving themselves that they could still live how they wanted because their participation in church was what was visible. But God sees in the darkness and secret places of our sin.

We must choose not to allow ourselves to be comfortable with letting sin be associated with us or being associated with people who choose to walk in sin – even if they sit next to us in the pew on Sunday or across from us at the dinner table.

Not all the people in the church of Ephesus were operating in sin but even a little sin corrupts the whole. And what happens is that those who are choosing to walk in sin begin to form mini congregations within the church, in other words cults. The word has come to break up those cults. Whether it's you and your spouse, you and your children, you and your siblings/family members, you and a church mother or deacon, you and your thoughts – when we are choosing to operate in sin and disregard the word, we will begin to flock together with people who we know will be comfortable with it. So, we continue to fool ourselves and think we can do what we want on the side if we keep coming to church.

But Galatians 6:7-8 says: “Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.…”

Here are some notes from the broadcast that can help us get free today!

Don’t be deceived into not obeying the truth. Don’t let any man deceive you with vain words.
You can't walk in love and animosity, suspicion, bitterness, backbiting, and the fallen nature at the same time.
You reap what you sow, one way or another and it will hurt.
The wrath of God comes to the children of disobedience.
We’ve got to be different and not be partakers of the same things that the world does.
Everything is connected. One thing leads to another. Depravity is connected to more depravity.
God is not accepting us living any kind of way and doing any kind of thing.
We should be able to agree with scriptures and the word of God. The spirit and the word of God should be guiding how we live. We should be able to agree about living right.
Don’t let media, devices, culture, etc., take your mind for God.
We must put sin out of our lives first, so we can remove it from the congregation, from the choir, from the praise team, from the usher board, etc.
Stop asking for advice from the pastor and the people of God, then going back to do the same thing.
Choose to live right. You should want to know what the right thing is to do.
Nowadays everything is acceptable in our lives. We just call it getting caught up or a weakness, but it's not acceptable to God.
When we find ourselves dressing and looking like the world, we need to see if we care more about fitting in with the world than how we present ourselves to God.
We should be praying and confessing to God that the very same thing he wrote in his word and the preacher preached is what we are doing. We should be saying: “I have done that sin.”