The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
2 Corinthians 7:8-13the main passage for the sermon, centering on verse 10 about godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow
8 For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while.
9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
11 For behold, this same thing, that you were made sorry in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
12 So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God.
13 Therefore we have been comforted. In our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
cited to show Paul referenced an earlier letter and to explain the issue of known sin and church discipline in Corinth
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2 You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?
7 Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners;
10 yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world.
11 But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.
12 For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within?
13 But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”
cited to show Paul wrote a severe letter instead of visiting, out of much affliction and tears
1 But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow.
2 For if I make you sorry, then who will make me glad but he who is made sorry by me?
3 And I wrote this very thing to you, so that, when I came, I wouldn’t have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy would be shared by all of you.
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorry, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.
5 But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all.
6 This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one;
7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.
8 Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him.
9 For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things.
10 Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,
11 that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
12 Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord,
13 I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia.
14 Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.
15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish;
16 to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
17 For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
the story of Ananias and Sapphira dying for lying, used to illustrate the fear of God and the importance of the purity of the church
1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession,
2 and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4 While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”
5 Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things.
6 The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in.
8 Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” She said, “Yes, for so much.”
9 But Peter asked her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
10 She fell down immediately at his feet, and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.
11 Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who heard these things.
12 By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
13 None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them.
14 More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
15 They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them.
16 The multitude also came together from the cities around Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits: and they were all healed.
17 But the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy,
18 and laid hands on the apostles, and put them in public custody.
19 But an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night, and brought them out, and said,
20 “Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”
21 When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and those who were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
22 But the officers who came didn’t find them in the prison. They returned and reported,
23 “We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!”
24 Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.
25 One came and told them, “Behold, the men whom you put in prison are in the temple, standing and teaching the people.”
26 Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.
27 When they had brought them, they set them before the council. The high priest questioned them,
28 saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.”
29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.
31 God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.
32 We are His witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
33 But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and were determined to kill them.
34 But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, and commanded to put the apostles out for a little while.
35 He said to them, “You men of Israel, be careful concerning these men, what you are about to do.
36 For before these days Theudas rose up, making himself out to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to nothing.
37 After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the enrollment, and drew away some people after him. He also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad.
38 Now I tell you, withdraw from these men, and leave them alone. For if this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown.
39 But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it, and you would be found even to be fighting against God!”
40 They agreed with him. Summoning the apostles, they beat them and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name.
42 Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ.
God will wipe away every tear, no more death or sorrow or pain, used as hope for believers in the context of worldly sorrow producing death
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Russ preached from 2 Corinthians 7:8-13, centering on verse 10, on the last Sunday of 2023. His point was simple: sorrow is coming for all of us in the new year, but it can go one of two ways. Godly sorrow produces repentance and life; worldly sorrow produces death.
What was said
Paul wrote at least four letters to the church at Corinth, and we only have two of them. To understand 2 Corinthians 7, you have to know that Paul had already written a severe letter, one he labored over with many tears, one that hurt their feelings badly enough that he regretted sending it. That background matters because verse 8 opens with Paul saying he does not regret it anymore, and the reason he does not regret it is what the rest of the passage is about.
The Corinthians received that painful letter and did the right thing with it. They did not get defensive and dig in. They sorrowed in a godly way, they repented, they dealt with the sin in their midst, and they came out the other side with a clear conscience. Titus came back to Paul with that news, and Paul was overjoyed. Second Corinthians is, in part, Paul writing to say: what you did worked, and now bring that brother back in.
The hinge of the passage is verse 10. Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, and is never to be regretted. The sorrow of the world produces death. Pastor Russ pointed out that the reason he moved the illustration away from physical death is that we are not in charge of that. The kind of sorrow he is talking about usually lives inside broken relationships, and usually there is sin on both sides.
He drew on something personal from that week. A close friend had died alone on December 22, a man he believed was a genuine believer, but one who had carried an old pain for so long that he had tried to drown it in alcohol for years. The pain was real and undealt with, and it eventually killed him. That, Pastor Russ said, is what the sorrow of the world produces, and that is the greater reason this passage landed on this particular Sunday.
Godly sorrow, by contrast, produces a whole list of things the text names in verse 11: diligence, a clearing of yourself, righteous indignation, a fear of God, vehement desire, zeal, and vindication. He spent time on each of these, but the one he pressed hardest was the clearing of yourself. That is not covering your tracks, he said. It is owning your percentage of the problem, however small, and laying it before God. You cannot control whether the other person repents and turns toward you, but you can give up your part of it.
He tied it to what Jesus did in Romans 5:8, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If Christ made the first move toward us when we were not even thinking about him, then that is the pattern for how we move toward people we are in conflict with. The world will know we are Christians by our love for one another, and that love has to be demonstrated in exactly the situations where it is hardest to show it.
He closed by naming 2024 directly. He said he does not put much stock in New Year's resolutions, but he does want to know, as far as it depends on him, that he has nothing between himself and anyone else, and that if someone has something against him, he will go to them. Revelation 21:4 is the finish line, where God wipes away every tear and sorrow is no longer needed. But until then, every sorrowful moment is an opportunity to turn it over to God and lean toward other people with grace and forgiveness.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Russ described at least four letters Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, each one responding to real problems in that community. What does it tell you about Paul's relationship with that church that he kept writing, kept showing up, even after painful visits and harsh letters?
Pastor Russ shared the story of his friend who died on December 22, a believer who could not get past an old pain and tried to self-medicate it for years. He said, 'If you don't deal with the pain in a godly way, it will eventually kill you.' What do you think keeps people from bringing that kind of pain to God instead of carrying it on their own?
Speaker 2Your flocks by night. God with man is now residing, yonder shines the infant light. Come and worship come and worship worship Christ the new born king. Nations we have seen his dado star come and worship come and worship worship Christ the new born king Saints before the home turbending, watching long in hope and fear, new worship. Worship Christ, the born Come and come and worship.
Come and worship. Worship Christ, the new born king. Amen. Woe for tidings of comfort and joy. And now to the Lord sing praises you within within this place and with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace this holy tide of Christmas on whose daunted face Woah, woah, tidings of comfort and joy.
Comfort and joy.
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning. For one, it's gonna say something about Awana, but Awana is not yet on. We follow the school calendar.
So I wanna see you at Owana, but that's not this Monday. It's next Monday. Twenty twenty four calendars, paper calendars are available in the lobby for $10. They're back on the table to the left back there, my left, your right. Proceeds go towards the youth program.
We've been doing this for years, and I just love them. I think that's great. That's the official calendar of the office of first b, Jackson, Wyoming. Congregational meeting is happening on January 21. That's three weeks from today.
It'll be between services. So if you normally come to this service, come an hour early if you wanna be involved in the congregational meeting. It is a normal thing. It's normal to have it in January two or three weeks into the year. We may end up calling another one during the middle of this year, but we're going to recognize volunteers at this meeting.
A lot of y'all are volunteers in this church. And in Owana, we want to recognize volunteers. We also want to discuss and vote on the budget and discuss and vote on a couple of nominees. Nominees for the Board of Trustees, Tim Williams, is, proposed to come on to the board, and Berkley Johnston, the younger, is to be an elder, if that makes sense to you. So that's a discussion and vote on those two guys and encourage the body in a congregational meeting between services January 21.
We do need volunteers for the connect hour. If you'd like to sign up in the fellowship hall, that's great. Addie Hair is the lady in charge of that now. If you have any questions, you can call her at that number, and she will answer them. She's a great, she's great.
She's fantastic at she's a dessert chef. Unbelievable. I cannot say enough good things about her desserts. But anyway, if you wanna talk to her, she's just as sweet as she can be, and she would love to have the help. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance normally meets on the first Wednesday of the month, not this time.
So no meeting in January for the Men's Alliance, not doing a meeting in January Men's Alliance. And one more thing. So the staff, Nick and Diane, are coming forward. Mike is actually out of town right now, but the staff wants to thank y'all for your generosity. So you all don't have to clap, but we're going to clap.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Each year, it's slightly different. There's a secret letter and I don't understand how it works, but it always works. And we are blessed by y'all's generosity, and we're very, very thankful.
It's been very helpful in this, part of the year. So thank you very much for your generosity and just for your steadfastness and diligence and faithfulness. Thank you for being who you are in Christ and towards us. Thank you. Alright.
Thanks. And I think that's the last announcement I have. Do y'all have anything? In the first service, somebody had an audible. Anybody?
Anybody? Alright. Would you stand? We're gonna sing Joy to the World.
Speaker 2Repeat the sound in joy. No more let sins and sob wounds grow, and no thorns infest the ground. He comes to make
Speaker 3Amen. Would you pray with me? Lord, as we have sung in this song, let every heart prepare him room. Would we, Lord, make room this morning, right now, in this moment, as we hear your word here in a bit too, that we truly would make room for your for your word for, that we would hear your voice. You're the good shepherd.
You're leading us. Thank you. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. You can have a seat here for a moment.
This is the worship through giving part of the the service, and I'll invite our ushers to come on forward. And we're gonna sing another little Christmas song, Christmas offerings from Psalm 29. It says, scribe to the Lord, the glory due his name, and worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. But before we sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray?
Speaker 1Sure. God almighty, we're so thankful to be here, gathered in your name at this time. Agreed upon space, Lord, we've got a place to be warm together. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray that the warmth that is between us would not just be the temperature, that we would be warm towards one another, that would be that we would stand together in unity, in the unity that the spirit provides, that we would experience the peace that passes understanding, not just individually, but corporately. I'm so thankful to be called a child of God, yes, but to be a part of the family of God is amazing, Lord.
So I pray that you would, through the obedience of your humble servants that are here gathered this morning, that you would advance your kingdom in this community, that you would advance to people who do not yet know you, that you would draw them into your kingdom, your loving arms, by using those of us who are here gathered in your name. Lord, for people who are sick in this community, I pray that your healing touch would be applied to their lives. For people who are ailing relationally, and they feel separated and lonely, and they feel like they've been turned over to this dark world, I pray, Lord, that the light of Christ would shine so brightly through this fellowship that you draw them into your your family, Lord. I pray that you would do in us what we cannot do for ourselves. But, Lord, I pray that we'd be humble and willing, expectantly waiting for it to happen.
In Jesus' name, we ask that you'd bless us often that we may be doing your will and your way. Amen.
Speaker 2Angels sat in lonely shepherds. Three wise men seeking truth, they're traveling from afar, hoping fine child from heaven, falling on their knees, they bow before the humble prince of peace. We bring no offering worship to our king. No one on earth deserves the praises that we sing. Sorrow cannot compare the glory of your love.
There is no shadow in your presence. No mortal man dare to stand before your throne, before the holy one of heaven. It's only by your God,
Speaker 1Amen. So this morning, in the in the scheme of things, in the way that we've been going, you know, I usually am teaching from chronological order. We've been in this harmony of the gospel study for a long time now. I look back. It's been a while.
It's been over a year that we've been going through the synoptic gospels together. But this week, it was very evident, last couple of weeks actually, very evident where to go this Sunday. And I've got a lot of different reasons. Somebody asked me between services, why that message this Sunday? I was thankful that he said it hit him hard, like it was where it was supposed to be there.
You know? It was like, fine. But he says, why did that come where did that come from? It's it's that in 2024, I don't usually use New Year's resolutions. Right?
They're usually gone by March if they last that long. But in 2024, I would like to know that the sorrow I experience in this year, because it's coming, right? We have sorrow every year. There's always sorrow. But it can be either godly sorrow or it can be worldly sorrow.
And in second Corinthians, it's not not a harmony of the gospel study this week. It's one of Paul's letters. It's a much shorter passage than we've been covering in the gospels. Lately, I've been covering a pericope from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So it's a lot of words from each.
This one is fairly short, and I'm really gonna center on one verse, verse 10. But for context, second Corinthians seven eight through 13 is the passage, centering on verse 10. I'm gonna start off with letters. If you're ever if you've ever worked on old houses, whenever you pull a wall apart, I don't know why it is, but people stash old letters everywhere. When I was building this little contraption back there for the sound booth, I opened up the wall, and I found a couple of letters that were stashed down in the wall.
It's kinda odd, but it happens all the time. So a little cache of letters that someone's hidden away, I know that my grandmother's house, in her living room, at the little desk, in the left drawer, on the bottom, if you pulled out that drawer, it was stacked full of letters. They looked like this. They had the little red, white, and blue around the edges. You know, that's the air mail from way back.
And written back from Vietnam. It was soldier's mail. My dad was in Vietnam for a year. I think it was December sixty eight to December sixty nine that he was there. And Mimi, my grandmother, had all of the letters that he had sent.
And now I couldn't tell everywhere he was. They weren't allowed to tell where they were and exactly what they were doing. And he was trying to put on not just a brave face, but he was trying to be cheerful when he's sending home letters. He didn't wanna send home a bunch of hard news. But telling how much he loved and cared for him was a part of it.
Have my uncle Jeff is seven years older than me. He was born in '64. And so when my dad was over there, he was, like, kindergarten age. And so my dad wrote a letter back to my uncle Jeff, and he wrote it all in print in huge letters so my uncle Jeff would be able to read it. Because he had sent him a letter.
He was responding. But on the outside of that envelope was stamped, a stamp from the post office. It found in equipment previously thought to be empty. And he got that letter about fifteen years later. Yeah.
And it's written in print, you know, to a kindergartner. But when you see letters, you get a glimpse from one side of what's going on. Right? Now background for this sermon. How many letters did Paul write to the church at Corinth?
We know that he helped plant the church. He mentions that in the first Corinthians and second Corinthians. He mentions it, and that he has some authority with him because he was there at the inception. He was the apostle that Christ sent to start that church. So how many did he write?
What what do you say? At least two. Good guess. That's right. Yeah.
That's good. I had somebody in the first service that did this, four. And that's a good guess too. At least four, I would say. It's at least four, maybe more.
He had been to visit them three times that we know of before he wrote second Corinthians. He was there for an extended stay. He went back, and then he went back for what he called a sorrowful visit. And he wrote them at least four letters. If you look at first Corinthians five, he mentions this.
He says, and these are from actually the I think I think it's from New King James Version this week. Immorality must be judged is just a heading that was in the Bible, that I had. It's not divinely inspired, but it does encapsulate the next couple of paragraphs. If you look at first Corinthians five, first, to us, seems like this is the first letter he wrote him. It's the first one we have.
He says, I wrote to you in my other epistle. I wrote to you in a different letter before, not to keep company with sexually immoral people, but I think he got me confused. I'm not saying, it says, yeah. I did I certainly did not mean don't deal with the sexually immoral people of this world because they are the people that we're reaching out to. Don't deal with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters.
Since then, you would need to get out of this world. All people are struggling with something. He said, when I wrote to you, I've written to you not to keep company with anyone who names themselves as a brother who is continuing in sexual immorality or being covetous, or being an idolater, or a reviler, or drunkard, or an extortioner. Not to even eat with such a person. This is about sort of church discipline.
It's a letter in first Corinthians. He's saying he wrote a letter, and he thinks they got him confused because they were anti everybody else, but they weren't dealing with the sin that was actually in their midst. Does that make sense? I know that I'm not gonna preach the whole book of first Corinthians right now, but that's what the gist of it is. For what I've ought to do to judge with those who are outside?
Don't you judge but do you not have to judge the people who are inside? We, as brothers and sisters, need to love one another enough to hold each other accountable to God's word. Right? So those who are outside, God judges. But, therefore, put away from yourselves the evil person.
He's writing to them for several reasons. When I got here this morning well, let's go on. Let's talk about the letters. How many letters? At least four.
So we have the other former letter, and then first Corinthians, which was sent, it seems, to clarify that former letter. And I got here this morning. I asked Carl. I said, what was first Corinthians about? If you had to just say right now, Carl, what's first Corinthians about?
And he said immediately, it's a rebuke. And I said, yes. And he said, and an encouragement. And I said, yes. And he says, and then there's that love chapter.
I said, yes. So here's what I had. The first part of first Corinthians was dealing with factions. There were divisions and factions in the church. Some of y'all say you're of Peter, and some of you say you're following Paul, and some of you say you're following Apollos, and others say I'm following Christ.
Right? There are four different factions that he names there. And there was known sin among the fellowship that he had let them know about, that they already knew about, but it was the outside world creeping into the church. And he said, y'all have been given spiritual gifts for a reason. The guiding principle, being love.
So everything Carl mentioned this morning is what I had on the slide already. Division, factions, known sin. So there's a rebuke about that. Y'all have to be unified. If we're gonna know, or if the world is gonna know that we're Christians, they're gonna know it because we love one another.
That's what Jesus said. So divisions and factions have to be dealt with. Known sin has to be dealt with. The spiritual gifts are there for that reason, and the guiding principle is love. So next, after first Corinthians, he wrote another letter.
I don't think you can call first Corinthians severe. It is a rebuke, and it is an encouragement. It is about love. So I don't think you can call it severe. But at some point, in second Corinthians two, Paul says, and I wrote this very thing to you, lest when I came, was he was planning on a visit.
He was planning on a visit, and instead of visiting, he wrote him a letter. I wrote to you this very thing, lest when I did come, I should have even more sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy. Y'all are so blessed to me, and I loved it. When I saw the church get off the ground, and Christ was building it up, but other things have crept in, and I came on this very sorrowful visit, it says. And before I came back again, I wanted to know that y'all were through this process.
I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all. I have confidence that my joy, Christ, is also your joy, Christ. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears. I labored over it. I cried over it.
I thought about it. It turned me inside out, sitting here in Ephesus, writing that letter. And it was harsh, and it was severe. Not that you should be grieved. I didn't wanna hurt your feelings, but I did want you to know the love that I have so abundantly for you.
That's why I wrote the severe letter. So the severe letter is mentioned in second Corinthians two, and then we have second Corinthians. And the text today is from second Corinthians. So you're getting a stack of letters that you only have half of the stack of letters, and you're only hearing Paul's side of what's going on because they're not talking. Does that make sense?
They're not talking to us at least. We don't have the records. This is the text for today. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I don't regret it. Though I did regret it at first.
I thought about it. I labored over it. How many of you have sent an email and then you went, oh my goodness. I cannot believe I sent that email. Or you sent a letter, you dropped it in the box, and you're like, on the way home, should I have sent that letter?
I know what I said, and it was harsh. It's the truth. I mean, it was from Paul. It was led of the spirit with many tears and anguish. It was true.
But he said, even if I made you sorry with my letter, I don't regret it. Though I did at first regret it. For I perceived that the very same epistle that made you sorry did so only for a while. When you got it, it was like, oh my goodness. Paul's upset.
By the way, if Paul was around, you think America would be getting a letter. Oh. Just that's a sideline. We got this letter. Got this letter.
Okay. We've got this one. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry. I don't like hurting your feelings, but that your sorrow led you to repentance. When you got it, you accepted that what was said was hurtful, but it was also true.
And instead of get angry and mad and hold on to it and have further divisions, what you did was repented of the sin and took it to God. For you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us and nothing. What I said, I don't realize it hurt your feelings, And I regretted it at first, but you know what? It caused the change that needed to happen. And though I still don't like that it hurt your feelings, I am glad that you acted on the truth.
For godly sorrow, this is where we're gonna focus our attention. It's just a great truth. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, and it is never to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. That is just a statement of truth, and sorrow can go either way. It can either be godly sorrow or it can be worldly sorrow.
It's a pain that we experience. I actually use the New King James because it says sorrow instead of New American Standard says grief. And I think that as Americans, we associate grief with death more than anything else. And so we think, how is that person's death supposed to make me repent? Its relational issues usually involve sin.
And it's usually not sin on just one side. It's usually sin on both sides. So for observe this very thing. We'll go on in the text, we'll come back to that. Observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner.
What diligence it produced in you? What clearing of yourselves? What indignation? What fear? What vehement desire?
What zeal? And what vindication? In all of these things, you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. You had a clear conscience before God after you dealt with the stuff that I wrote to you about. Right?
You laid it out there and allowed God to take that sin. You allowed for that to happen. You humbled yourself before him. You agreed with him, and he has thrown that sin as far as the East is from the West. And you're clear in this matter.
That's good. That's because the sorrow, the pain that you experienced, you experienced it in a godly way. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I didn't do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong originally. If you've read first and second Corinthians, there's this one guy that it centers around sexual immorality. He says, I I didn't write for the sake of that guy who had done the wrong, nor did I write for the sake of the persons who had suffered the wrong, but that our care for you as a church collectively in the sight of God might appear to you so that you'd know that we still care that you're connected directly to Christ and you're paying attention to him.
So that you know that we love you enough to share the truth with you. Therefore, we, Paul and his running buddies, have been comforted in y'all's comfort, and we have rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus. Titus was the one that came back with the good news that they had listened to the severe letter, that they had dealt with it. Second Corinthians, he writes back and says, you did the right thing, and it sounds like the right thing worked like it's like it does when you do the right thing. And he says, now forgive that brother and bring him into the warmth of your fellowship.
Bring him in. Bring him in. We rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus. He couldn't wait to get back and tell us how things were going because his spirit has been refreshed by all of y'all. We go back to godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Sorrow can go either way. We are all going to experience pain. All of us. It's impossible to live this life and not experience pain. But it's gonna be either, as Charlie Brown says, good grief, good grief, or it's gonna be bad grief.
Good grief has products, and bad grief has products. Godly sorrow is better than worldly sorrow because of what it produces. I I wanna stop right here and just say, pastorally this week, there was a lot going on. In the first service, actually, Yvonne Woods said, I want to say something. And so I'll let her borrow the microphone.
On Tuesday this week, Hayden, their grandson, lives in Kuna, Idaho, which is all the way to Boise. It's like, you know, it's a long way from here. And they go pick him up and they do like a custody situation, whereas dad has him for most of the year and they have him for a few weeks here and there. And Sunday afternoon, right after the service, Yvonne called and said, Russ, that they had been to the grocery store and after breakfast, been to the grocery store, came home. He was having tightness in his chest to the point where he thought he might be having a heart attack.
So he didn't want to go to the doctor, but she insisted that he go. And they went and ended up in the emergency room. And you know, he was alright. He's okay. But they said, don't be driving for a while.
Well, they have to pick up Hayden in Boise on Tuesday. And so Diane went I went first, and then Diane went because the service was about to start here. And then before the service started, they showed up here, went straight from the emergency room and came to church. Devoted. He's 85.
And the doctor said, yeah, probably best you don't drive. But, the next day, got a on Christmas day, I got a text from Nippon says, which one of y'all is taking us to Boise, Diane or you? So I said, I'll take you. So I got a chance to ride over and get to know Russ and Yvonne better than I ever have, which was wonderful. And I got to visit with Hayden on the way home, and the dog.
Rode over there and back, and that was great. Two days later, I got a call pastorally. I had actually gotten a call just before Christmas that a fellow that I love dearly and who was a steady friend, that struggled and had struggled for many, many years with alcohol, that he had died by himself, December 22. And I got a call from his widow, estranged widow, because of the drinking. They were in a separated state.
And there's a relational issue there that was something that I believe he was a believer. I know she's a believer. I don't have any doubt about that. But there was a pain that he had experienced in the distant past that he tried to self medicate that he couldn't get past. And that caused a pain in her that she couldn't get past.
And so on Thursday, rode down to Salt Lake, stood with her at her husband's body, the table viewing. And she was able to say everything she needed to say. And I was able to pray with her and say everything I felt like I needed to say because he's my dear friend. And I believe that he's in the arms of his savior. I don't have any doubt about that.
That's the salvation that I'm sure of that. But the struggle is real. If you don't deal with the pain in a godly way, it will eventually kill you. And so this week, that's probably the greater portion of why this is being preached this morning. Godly sorrow is better than worldly sorrow because of what it produces.
So what does it produce? It says what it produces. Repentance. That's the first and foremost. Now I know I just mentioned a couple of examples of things, and I threw that out there as other people.
But for me, this has been very, very personal all for the last couple of weeks thinking about this. There are a lot of situations in our lives where there's an us and them mentality that begins. And sometimes it's within the body of Christ, within a church family or a work family. And sometimes it's it's bigger than that. It's it's us and them like us, insiders and them outsiders.
But any pain that we experience, any sorrow, emotional pain that we experience, God has given us pain for a reason, and it's to let us know something is wrong. Right? If you touch a hot stove, you pull back immediately because that'll burn you. It's bad for you, and you you pull away from it. What does godly sorrow produce?
The text says it produces repentance. First and foremost, the first thing is, as we experience the pain, you say, Lord God Almighty, this is more than I can carry. I'm afraid that I caused this pain to befall me. That's the reason I wanted to move it away from just the realm of death, because we know we're not in charge of that. But if we are in relationship with somebody and something causes a sharp disagreement and we pull back from them, and we know that they have something against us, so we know that we may have something against them, but we're insisting on being right.
When that pain hits us, if we deal with it in a godly manner, what it produces is a repentance on our part. It won't guarantee that the other person will repent and turn towards us. But if we're walking in separate directions and then we realize our part of the problem and God convicts us of that through that pain, and we lay that down and say, God, forgive me. First of all, he does. I agree with you about my part in this, Lord.
There's nothing there's nothing that I want for to persist in this. I want for you to take that away from me, and I want for you to heal it. And he will, on your side, at least. You can't be responsible for what they do. But repentance on your part, as you're walking away from them, and you turn away, and you stand ready to forgive.
Now, in the first service, we sang the Lord's Prayer. And when it says, Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lord, forgive us our sins just like we forgive the sins of others. Okay. Personally, individually, not just corporately, but personally, individually.
Do you want God to forgive you the way you forgive other people? Some of us are tempted to forgive them like this. Yes. I know I'm supposed to forgive them, so I forgive them. Yes.
Done. I forgive them. They're forgiven. I don't want have anything to do with them, though. Is that the way that you want for God to forgive you?
Yes. I forgive you. Yeah. You're forgiven. Yeah.
I promise you. So I gotta do it. Yeah. But I don't want to have anything to do with you. That's not what he does.
That's not his manner. That's not what the spirit of God does. A bruised reed, he wouldn't break. A smoldering wick, he wouldn't put out. He is gentle with us when we come to him humbly and ask for forgiveness, he forgives us, and he draws us close.
So what does godly sorrow produce? First of all, it produces repentance. That's first and foremost. And it describes that repentance as that which is leading to salvation. Since Paul is talking to Christians, I think he's talking about not just salvation, like in the binary, either you're in or you're out of the family of God.
I think he's talking about it leads to whole relationships that honor God. Salvation is that. And so if you're a non believer, yeah, you get this pain and you realize that it's pain that you caused on your own life and yourself. You turn that over to God. Yes.
Anybody who calls on the name of Lord will be saved. That is a salvation. But if you're already a believer, since he's writing to believers, he's saying, what I said to you made a difference in your life. You laid it down before God. You acted on it.
You repented, and that has brought you to a salvation space. Okay? And that is never to be regretted. You're living out this Christian life the way that is supposed to be lived when you are humble before God, and you are living that out in the way that Jesus did, led by the spirit. He never had sin.
He never had sin, so he didn't have to deal with it the same way we did. He dealt with it on the cross. Our sin. Bucket list. Do you all know what a bucket list is?
A kick the bucket list, do these things before I kick the bucket, right? Out here, I hear people say all the time, I'm going to climb that grand. I'm to do it one day. I heard three people say it after the service, I don't want to climb that grand. It's fine right where it is.
I did climb the highest mountain in Costa Rica one time where I promised God I would never climb another one. If you get me off this one, I promise I won't ever get up here again. It might be running with the bulls in Pamplona or it might be anything. Bucket list, I wanna go to see Kilimanjaro or I wanna go on a mission trip or something bucket list activity. I I don't have a lot of things like that, but this year, I was really convicted about this.
If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, Ray, right? This is on my bucket list. It's on my bucket list. Like, I wanna do this. I wanna know that I don't have anything between me and anybody else.
And I also, beyond that, I wanna know if they have something against me that I will go to them. Does that make sense? If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. You can't control what other people do. But if there's an argument, and you're 2% at fault and they're 98% at fault, give up your 2%.
Right? It's tempting and it's hard to wanna hold on to it because they're more wrong than I am. But if you just are waiting to just be right and be proven to be right, that's probably not gonna happen. You know? It's not gonna happen from them anyway.
The purpose of sorrow for those who have never put their faith in Jesus Christ is that it it prompts you to turn towards God, your maker. I think that physical pain and even terminal illness sometimes causes people to rethink decisions they've already made. Right? They have persisted. And I've seen it.
I've I've I've heard it. I've heard it in the ICU. I've heard it a lot where people have lived their whole lives and not really cared what the Bible said or what Jesus did. They're just making it through day by day. Best way they know how.
But but then when an emotional pain that they can't handle or a physical malady that they can't handle or the physical malady of somebody in their life that they can't handle, it causes us to turn to God for a deeper answer than we've been just muddling through on. The purpose of sorrow for those who have never put their faith in Jesus Christ is that it prompts you to turn towards God your maker. God gave us our ability to sense pain for our protection. In the same way that that hot stove causes you to draw back, there is danger. There is danger leaving this life without Christ.
And so your pain is designed to help you escape the perilous situation that you're in, living for yourself. So that's one way of looking at it. The truth though is for everyone in the room, not just those who haven't ever put their faith in Christ. It's also for those who already have trusted in Jesus. It prompts you to grow closer to him.
Jesus is described as being a man of what? Sorrows. And acquainted with what? Grief. Jesus wept when he saw Lazarus dead and his sisters suffering, sorrowing over him.
And he promised them resurrection. They had it theologically right. They were still experiencing the pain, and that godly sorrow is designed to help you empathize with others. Did Christ empathize with them? Absolutely, he did.
He knew resurrection was coming. That's glorious. If there's something that's separating believers from each other, it really does need to be overcome. How does the world know that Christ is real? He is who he says he is.
They'll know that you're Christians by your love for one another. They'll know that you're Christians because you genuinely care about keeping peaceable relationships. Jesus epitomizes godly sorrow. Left the glories of heaven and came into a difficult situation. The Bible describes in Romans five eight that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Okay. Think about that. If he did that while we were yet sinners, how is it that we should be forgiving other people who we're in relational, antagonistic relationships with? We need to be making the first step just like Christ made the first step while we were yet sinners when we weren't even thinking about him. He made the step for us.
We need to be turning from our wicked way, turning towards and walking towards people and extending forgiveness for whatever percentage of the problem was theirs. Having already given up our percentage to God. Jesus epitomizes that godly sorrow. So what else does godly sorrow produce? The next verse, verse 11, tells us that and this is New King James.
I I thought about going into the Greek and doing all the Greek, but y'all can understand what these words mean. You know? Observe this very thing, that y'all did sorrow in a godly manner. You took the pain of having that in your midst, and you did what was necessary to call it out. You also now, he's saying in second Corinthians, lovingly restore this brother.
Bring him back in. Observe this very thing. Y'all sorrowed in a godly manner. See what diligence it produced in you. I want to live 2024 more diligently than I live 2023.
I want to be ever being sanctified, closer to Christ and closer to other people. I wanna be able to really be a peacemaker that helps put warring parties together. I wanna be diligent about it. What? Clearing of yourself.
Now this can look like just covering your behind. A clearing of yourself. Well, it's not my problem. No. It's a clearing of yourselves by owning the part of it that is yours.
I reacted poorly when you hurt my feelings. That pain caused me to lash out at you rather than listen to you. God forgive me for that. That's the clearing of yourself right there. It clears you from any wrongdoing in the past because you have laid it before the one who can forgive.
It produces diligence. It produces a clearing of yourselves. It produces indignation. Indignation is righteous anger. Why would we want that?
Because we are so tempted towards wrong anger all the time. We'd rather the anger that we have be about the right things. What were the things that upset Jesus? That's the things I want to upset me. Indignation is righteous anger.
Still not sinning from the anger. Right? Still no sin involved. Diligence, clearing of yourselves, indignation. What reverence.
Fear. Phobos is the word. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Yeah. It's great that you're all together in this place.
You get together at the right times. You sing praises to God. But a real fear of God about the way that we lived our lives or that we live our lives. This is what first service didn't get this. Okay?
This is just for y'all. I stayed around for one of Pascal's Greek classes recently, and I was just overhearing what was going on. And it was Acts five. Does anybody remember what happened in Acts five? They're translating on the fly.
It's a bunch of senior Greek students translating from Greek, and they're reading it. And it was obvious that some of them never read the story of Ananias and Sapphira before. And it ends with, well, you all can read Acts five. Ananias falls over dead, it says, the youth group, that's the way they translate it, and the youth group came along and dragged him out. And then they asked Sapphira the same questions, and she told the same lies.
And she died. I think that that would produce a fear of God. The purity of the church is what was at stake in Acts five. The purity of the church is what was at stake in first Corinthians, second Corinthians, the former letter, and the severe letter. The purity of the church is important.
What repentant should do is make us aware of God and have a reverence for him and a fear of him. The youth group came and dragged her away too, the text says. But then it says, and a great phabos, fear, came over the church that God is really serious about us getting along and being truthful with one another. That didn't go to the first service. There we go.
What vehement desire. What vehement desire. Don't you want for your godly desires to be vehement that they burn within you? God, make me righteous, not just right in an argument. Make me a peacemaker so that those people who are at war that can't see it, that I can help them see the way to get back together because in the unity of the Godhead, that's the way Jesus wants us to get along with one another.
I want I want a vehement desire for the unity of the body of Christ. I want to be zealous for that. I want to be shown as vindicated in my belief that we can actually get along. Right? Because it's easier to just say, you know what?
We had a sharp disagreement. Let's just stay away from each other. No. I want for us to be able to get together. I know there's such thing as abuse.
I know there are situations where it's not just dependent on one party. It depends on both for them to be able to reconcile. But in as much as it depends on me, I want for it to be something that I'm not the obstacle. God help me not to be the obstacle. In all things, you prove yourselves to be clear in this matter.
What a great paragraph this is. Paul is earnestly desiring that they would live out the gospel day by day, and he's seeing that they're doing it. Now so I've spent a lot of time on godly sorrow. We got four minutes left. What does the sorrow of the world produce?
There's only one thing listed. Death. If you don't sorrow in a godly way, you will die with the worldly sorrow. That's a horrible thing. But God is still in charge.
We can be Christians, and we can be saved, and we can have the assurance of salvation, and still not get along with people. This says in Revelation twenty one four, and God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Those whose names have been written in the lamb's book of life will not go into eternity crying and having relational difficulty. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death.
There'll be no more sorrow because there's no need for it anymore, Nor crying, and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Praise God that he is able to work through it. May we be aligning ourselves with him by taking every sorrowful moment and turning it over to him and turning from our wicked way and leaning towards other people with grace and forgiveness. Would you stand with us? I'm gonna invite Carl and Laurie back up to the front.
We're gonna sing I think we're gonna sing Go Tell It On The Mountain. Is that what we're singing? Yeah. It's good news. This is good news.
It's a hard sermon, but it's good news.
Speaker 2The shepherds feared and trembled when the above the earth rang out the angel chores it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. Down in a lonely manger, the humble Christ was born. And God sent us salvation. That blessed Christmas
Speaker 1Make his face to shine upon you, and may he give you peace. And that peace shouldn't just remain with you. I pray that it would flow through you on the people who are just anxious and upset, and hurt, and they're experiencing pain, and you can show them how to experience the peace of God. What to do with the sorrow that they're feeling. In Jesus' name, may it be so.
