4) Keep it -- this is not a temporary exercise beloved. Once you have strengthened what remains and remembered what you have received and heard you then need to stay consistent about it. Do not deviate from it. Do not fall for the wiles of the world and the cunning of human wisdom.
5) Repent -- we must recognize the spiritual battle we are always in. What causes these problems in the church is always related to sin. These are not mistakes, errors, or oopsies. Repentance is needed because forgiveness is needed before any of these things may come to pass. Sardis did not just happen to die of natural causes. They killed themselves. The wages of sin is death beloved. On a personal and corporate level. God is always willing to forgive but we must always be first willing to call sin, sin. To call evil, evil. To repent and then be forgiven.
So we close the letter to the dead church. In the previous letters, Jesus opens with what was positive but there was nothing positive here. There is no dressing up a dead church beloved. There is no sense in pretending what is dead is actually alive. Likewise today it is time to stop calling dead churches alive. You can cover it up a little bit with loud music and smoke machines but in the end, death is always death. We have to stop making excuses for them. I understand that no one likes confrontation but there are still people inside these churches and they still matter to God. They ought to matter to us as part of the body of Christ. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church today.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- December 14, 2016
