Weakness

But we're reading god's word right now. So let's, let's ask the lord to help us. Please, lord, help us not to see this just as some words on a page. But the living word of our living god. And by your spirit, through Tom, in his study of this word and thinking it through and thinking through how to apply it to us, that we would hear your voice and be remade and, be people that want to follow you with, deep repentance and yet love for you.

In Jesus' name, amen. So Paul writes, verse 2, make room for us in your hearts We have wronged no 1. We have corrupted no 1. We have exploited no 1. I do not say this to condemn you I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you.

I have spoken to you with great frankness. I take pride in you. I am greatly encouraged in all our troubles. My joy knows no bounds. For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn.

Conlicts on the outside fears within. But god, who comforts the downcast, comforted us, by the coming of Titus and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your odd, ardent concern for me. So that my joy was greater than ever. Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it.

Though I did regret it, I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while. Yet now I am happy, Not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as god intended, And so we're not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. And leaves no regret, but world worldly sorrow brings death.

See what this godly sorrow has produced in you. Or earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point, you have proved yourself to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the 1 who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before god, you could see for yourself how devoted to us you are. By all this, we are encouraged.

In addition to our encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. I had boasted to him boasted to him about you and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so are boasting about you to titus has proved to be true as well. And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling. I am glad I can have complete confidence in you.

If you'd like to turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 7, and as Pete said, this is a series that we've been doing in this letter of 2 Corinthians and, rather than working our way through it passage by passage, we've been looking at chunks. And, we've been focusing especially on this theme of weakness. And we've been exploring how Paul the apostle encourages us to embrace weakness in the Christian life, not because, you know, we enjoy weakness as an end in itself. But because when we are weak, then the strength and the grace and the power of the lord Jesus can rest upon us. We ought to embrace weakness for those reasons.

So we're back in chapter 7, and, we're looking at verse 2 through to 16 the whole of the chapter. And, as it seems to me, there's you read the letters of Paul in general. He had 2 great concerns. He wanted to see people firstly to be born again through the preaching of the gospel. He wanted his hearers to see the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of Jesus Christ.

As he preached and he traveled around sharing the good news. He wanted god to say let there be light in people's lives so that the darkness would fade and sin would be repented of and Roth would be escaped and salvation would be found, and Christ would be honored. That was 1 of his great, all consuming passions that people might be born again. That was something we saw in 2 Corinthians 4 a few weeks ago, but also he wanted to see those born again ones grow up in Christ Jesus and to become mature, not to stay infantile in their faith, but to be established and rooted and mature and fruitful and strong as disciples of the lord Jesus. And that passion was just as consuming in his life.

It was an all consuming passion. He was a man who was mastered by 2 desires. The conversion of the lost and to see his loved churches growing up in Christ. Let me just stack up a few passages just to show you these concerns. Hopefully, they'll come up on the screen behind me.

Colossians 1 Christ is the 1 we proclaim admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everybody fully mature in Christ. To this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy that Christ so powerfully works in me. When I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain, 1 for loneliness 3. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep.

I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all of the churches to Corinthians 11, and perhaps the most powerful 1. My dear children for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth. Until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now.

So imagine it like this. You're stuck in hospital, and a loved 1 is going through a difficult operation. In that moment, what is on your mind? What is your all consuming desire? To know how it's going at the office?

To catch up on your hobbies to make sure the house is clean. All of those things are by the by. They're forgotten. The health of your loved 1 is all you can think about. And even if it's only a few meters away, that distance from the waiting room to the operating theater is is agonizing Even if it's just down the corridor, you wanna be in there, though you don't really, but you wanna be with them, you wanna be able to take them home and look after them.

It's an agonizing distance that exists. As your loved ones go through that kind of operation. It seems Paul was like that almost constantly. He was like the concerned father in the waiting room who's pacing up and down the corridors, reading every magazine in the waiting room. Even though he's already read them before.

Drinking endless coffee, which he doesn't like in the canteen, waiting, waiting for news agonized by the distance, anxious to know how it's going. The health of his children was so very important to him. Would they grow? Would they mature? Were they dying spiritually?

What was happening to them. So you can imagine when the surgeon comes back into the waiting room finally and says, Look, it was harder than we thought, and there's gonna be a lot of pain in the next few weeks as they recover. But your son, your daughter responded well, and it looks like they're gonna make a full recovery. The relief and the delight is overwhelming. Now that is the image that I want you to bear in mind because it is actually the key to understanding this part of the this part of the letter.

The Corinthians who we've been learning about over the past few weeks have gone under the surgeon's knife. They've had to go through a pretty serious operation. It has been painful. There is gonna be a lot of work to do in the recovery. But they have responded well.

Imagine Titus is the junior doctor. He's come from the operating theater, He knows how the operation has gone. He's been there. He's got firsthand evidence, and he's come back from the theater into the waiting room and he sees Paul the concerned father and he brings him the good news. He's gonna make a full recovery.

And he is quite simply overjoyed. And basically, that is the big picture of chapter 7. And I want us just to run if we can with this hospital illustration as a way of kind of breaking open what happened here and learning some of the lessons, from from this amazing chapter. And we're gonna start at the beginning of the operation, and this is the first point this morning. The surgeon's knife making the cut.

The surgeon's knife making the cut. Now with any operation, the more serious it is the more anxious you will feel. Yeah. The more seriously your precious, the more anxious you will feel. Having your tonsils out, although I don't think it's something they particularly do anymore, is not the same as having your brain stem operated on.

We know that. 1 of them is that in and out operation, you're likely not to face many consequences afterwards. The other involves literally life or death, life threatening cuts and moves around the most important crucial part of your brain and indeed your whole body. And Paul, with this second letter that he wrote, this severe letter, which we'll think about in a minute, was doing brain stem surgery. So now we need to slightly add to the hospital illustration.

This is the only change we'll make, and then we can stay with it. But we need to understand that Paul in this letter is both concerned father and surgeon. He makes the cut, but he's not just a clinical man. He's a father. I don't know if that's ever happened.

I guess it probably has, where a father has had to perform life or death surgery on their own child. How would they feel? It changes the picture incredibly, doesn't it? The father has got to operate on his child. He is both clinical and distant and professional and yet so involved with everything that he is that he feels that concern of a of a father as well.

That's what we've got here. Paul and his second letter is like the father who is also a surgeon. Now what is that second letter all about? Well, if you're in a home group and you've been studying this letter, you'll know from the material, the introductory material that 2 Corinthians is probably the third letter that Paul actually wrote to this church. And to be honest, the history of 2 Corinthians is that is pretty tangled.

So what I've done is I've put together a little slideshow and, hopefully, it will just make it slightly more entertaining. Here we go. Here's the first kind of order of events. 80 51 52, the church was founded in Corinth Act 18. We've read that this week.

Next 1, after that, Paul went to Ephasis, and at some time, while he was in Ephasis, messengers came to him from corinth with some questions about the church and about people who had arrived at the church and about the lord's supper and eating particular types of meats and spiritual gifts, and there was all these questions that the church had. And in response to them, Paul writes 1 Corinthians to try to answer and deal with some of their concerns. After that, Paul then hears that there are big problems in the church. And he decides to make a quick voyage from ephesus. So it's obviously something pretty urgent.

He hears something he's gotta respond to. He leaves his ministry in ephesus, for a short time, and he goes over to to corinth. And apparently, according to 2 Corinthians, this visit did not go well at all. He describes it as a painful visit in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 1. What he saw was upsetting.

The reception he received was frosty. Things were going pretty badly. Next, After this painful visit, Paul returns to ephesus, and he sends titus back to corinth with another letter. And this letter is known as the severe letter. It's the severe letter.

He's written in response to the painful visits and he's writing strongly in order to rebuke the church for tolerating his opponents and beginning to move away from his gospel. That letter is now lost to us, but there's all kinds of very compelling evidence that had existed. Then, lastly, Titus returns to Paul after delivering the severe letter. He tells Paul how the church received his strong words and then Paul writes to Corinthians in response to that report. So you see kind of what's going on a little bit.

It's a bit tangled, but that's where we are. So back to the hospital illustration, okay, Paul, with this second letter, was writing something severe. This really was the surgeon's knife. It was the deep cut. It was the first attack, a severe movement against a disease which had taken hold of the church.

And what was the disease? Well, as I've said, there were opponents in the church. There were false teachers. There were charlatans who had come in. There were liars.

Selling their snake oil and whispering in the ears of the church and trying to get people to distrust and turn away from Paul. And it seems from this passage in chapter 7 that there was some kind of ringleader who was orchestrating this rebellion sowing seeds of distrust in the apostle. Have a look at verse 12. So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the 1 who did the wrong, the 1 who did the wrong. Now this may be just a kind of catch all term for Paul's opponents or could be that there was 1 main leader doing the wrong, 1 main opponent who was sort of fostering the rebellion, if you like.

But either way, this is the key thing. The Corinthians were listening to the opponents, and that is why repentance is needed. At 1 time, this church would have loved Paul. They would have trusted him. They would have spoken well of him, and maybe they still did some of them.

But his point here in challenging them is you didn't take action against this opponent He writes like this in the letter. You didn't take action against him. You entertained him. You gave him a hearing. You listened to him.

You didn't discipline him. You didn't rise up to the defense of your apostle. You you you You tolerated this questioning, this distrust in me, your spiritual father. The 1 who had brought you the gospel, you shouldn't have done that. And so we wrote this severe letter, this surgeon's knife in order to rebuke them for not standing up to this opponent.

It's very interesting how this can happen, isn't it? Spiritual leaders that you once trusted loved their gospel. You wanted to hear their gospel and grow under their ministry. Suddenly, Not sure about anyone. Not sure if I do trust them.

Why? Because we've grown wiser. No. Because we've lent Aria to opponents. That is what had happened here.

These were his spiritual children. Suddenly a poisonous opponent stands up. I wouldn't trust him. I'm not sure. This doesn't look like the kind of apostle you wanna follow, and all of a sudden they're beginning to tolerate and be influenced.

By these opposing lies. That is what had happened, and Paul wrote to rebuke them for that, for that toleration of what they knew was wrong. But remember, this wasn't just clinical business. This was family business. He wasn't just a surgeon.

He was also the father. Just look out for both of those things in verse 2 4 to 9, 4 to 9. Let's have a look at chapter 7, 4 to 9. I have spoken to you with great frankness. I take great pride in you and am greatly encouraged in all of our troubles, my joy knows no bounds.

For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. But we were harassed at every turn, conflicts on the outside fears within. But god who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort you had given him He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me so that my joy was greater than ever. Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I don't not I do not regret it, though I did regret it. I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while.

Yet now I'm happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. You see you see the mixture there. No surgeon would say this kind of thing about his patient. No surgeon would say, as he says in this chapter, you have such a place in my heart that I would live or die with you. That's a father talking, not a surgeon.

You've such a place in my heart. I would live or die with you. And then in verse 8, he seems to be really kind of confused He says I don't I don't regret causing you sorrow. I don't regret that you were hurt by my letter, though, actually, I kinda do regret it, and I wish it hadn't happened. And I did regret it for a little while.

It it's just wonderfully honest, isn't it? He's saying, look, this letter was for your good. I made the cut because I love you. I don't regret doing it. You needed the operation.

But in a way I do, I didn't want to hurt you, but actually I'm kind of glad that I did. Not because you were hurt, but because it led to life because of how you responded. Would any father want to operate on his daughter's brain stem. But on the other hand, he wouldn't regret it if it led to life and salvation and health. That's Paul.

This second letter was a severe cut, but the knife was being held by a father. And I reckon there's just so much to learn from that pastoral approach. Now again, as we have to keep saying in this series, and we we do keep saying, we must recognize that Paul was an apostle, and we can't just draw perfectly straight lines from him to us. He had this unique authority as 1 who had met and been commissioned by the risen Jesus. He is special in the economy of of god's kingdom in in redemptive history.

But in this chapter, we find a great model of pastoral care. This is how leaders ought to be toward the church and it's how we must be towards each other. You see there will be times in Christian Life when a cut needs to be made. 2 Timothy 3 16 tells us that all of scripture is god breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, There is a time for rebuke for correction for the surgeon's knife. But in those moments, we don't come as the clinical surgeon, we come as the father surgeon.

We come as 1 who would say you have such a place in my heart that I would live or die with you, but I need to say this I don't wanna cause you sorrow. I don't wanna cause you sorrow, but I do if it will lead to life. Now look we're sinners, and sometimes we will get things very wrong. Sometimes we won't understand situations Sometimes we will cut too deeply. Sometimes we won't cut at all and pretend that everything's fine.

Sometimes we make mistakes, Sometimes we're too much surgeon and not enough father, but we must embrace the principle. You and I If you would consider yourself to be a member of this church ought to care deeply about the spiritual health of your brothers and sisters. Deeply. Most of the time, we would just need to practice kind encouragement. But there will be times when we must be operated on and there must be times when we must operate with the hands of a father surgeon.

It's just wonderful how we see Paul's heart there, isn't it? So concerned, so anxious, willing to cut, regretting the cut. But loving them so much he'll do what is necessary to bring life. That's the first thing. The surgeon's knife making the cut.

But secondly, the father's heart rejoicing in the news. We've seen the surgeons cut. Now we're gonna see the father's heart rejoicing in the news. Now remember at the start, I shared a few verses with you to show, Paul's constant anxiety about the churches, but I left 1 of them out, and I think it is in some ways the most powerful of them all. I think I did put it up Steve.

There it is. This is from 2 Corinthians 2 earlier in the letter. Now when I went to troas to preach the gospel of Christ, and found that the lord had opened the door for me. I still had no peace of mind because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

So you get what he's saying. This is quite incredible for Paul to say something like this. He went to troas, and when he was in troas, He discovered that the Lord had opened a door for his ministry. There was some kind of great evangelistic opportunity that he had in troas, but he couldn't take it. When he didn't find titus there, when he was unable to find out about the health of the church, he had to pass it by.

He was so anxious. He had to walk past the open door. He was so concerned for the health of his church. He was actually unable to take a gospel opportunity. That is amazing, isn't it?

And it shows you something of the man. Yes. He was a surgeon. We've seen that. But he was a father chewing his fingernails to bits.

So much so that he had to wave goodbye to troas in order to get closer to finding out about the Corinthians. That's his heart. And so as you can see in this chapter, When he does eventually catch up with Titus, and when he hears the good news, he takes that big, happy, sigh of relief. Finally, he's reunited with Titus and it's good news. And it seems that there are 4 main things which delight him here, for big reasons that this father can now rejoice in the news.

Don't worry. I'm not gonna go through all of them at length. We'll rattle through 3 of them fairly quickly and then focus on the last 1 because it is the focus of this passage. And the first reason for his delight, the first bit of good news from junior doctor Titus is in verse 6. But god who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus.

He wasn't beaten up on the road. He didn't get lost on the way He went and he returned in safety. This is way before the days of Instagram and video calling and WhatsApp messaging, who knows whether they would have had any communication? Who knows whether Titus would have returned safely? But he did.

And it shows you how much Paul needed gospel companions, didn't it? Perhaps you noticed that as you were reading through the book of acts this week, He has these real intimate bonds with elders and gospel partners. They weep on their knees when they have to depart. They they valued Gospel partnership so much. That's what Paul was like.

He wasn't an isolationist, grumpy, lonely, thinking he could do it by himself. He needed and treasured. Gospel partners, how good it was to see the face of Titus again. But secondly, verse 7, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort that you had given him. Now that is good news because it clearly wasn't obvious how the Corinthians were gonna respond.

Maybe that severe letter had made them more angry, more likely to embrace the opponents, more keen to turn against Paul and Titus who knows how it had gone down. But no, they comforted him. They welcomed him. It's good news. Thirdly, the other half of verse 7, He told us about your longing for me.

Your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me. So that my joy was greater than ever. So good. However, deep the cut, however long the operation in the end, that severe letter made them realize how precious Paul was, and their love for him was renewed You can imagine them reading it, can't you thinking, do you know he's right? He's always had our best interests.

He's always been faithful to us. He's always told us what we need to hear. He's not like these super apostles, these opponents who come and go. He's he's always been for us. He's right.

We we are concerned for him. We do love him. Let's renew our passion for him. Paul was so comforted to have heard that. That's the third thing I told you, rattle through them.

But fourthly, and here's my main point this morning, really, the main reason for his rejoicing. The Corinthians responded to the truth with godly sorrow and lively faith. They responded to the severe letter with godly sorrow and lively faith. Just look how he describes that in verse 8. Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it.

Though I did regret it, I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while, yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as god intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you, what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point, you have proved yourselves.

To be innocent in this matter. The knife was painful, but the result was life. Ultimately, Paul says, they proved themselves to be innocent in the matter. In other words, they repented of tolerating the opponent, and it looks like they may have even taken some action in order to discipline him. And taken together, this is such good news for Paul, and broader than that, it is such a helpful definition of repentance.

Godly sorrow, lively faith, action. Godly sorrow, lively faith action. See you in verse 10. They weren't just sorrowful. They had godly sorrow.

They weren't just feeling guilty They were eager to clear themselves. They weren't just, nah, you know, probably shouldn't have happened. They were full of indignation. They weren't just oops. Shouldn't have done that slipped up there.

They were full of alarm. What have we done? Why didn't we take action? They weren't just, oh, well. Bigons be Bicons.

So all in the past now, they were eager to put it right to see justice done, to see the ship turning around. They weren't just sorry, sorry, Paul. They were full of concern for their surgeon. Do you see it? There's a feeling of guilt.

There is sorrow and there is a turning back to god. In order to put things right. And the principle there is 1 that applies very broadly. Repentance is more than just feeling guilty. It's always more than just feeling guilty.

If the Corinthians or you and I, feel guilty or sad about something. Maybe something you've done in your past. Maybe 1 big thing. Maybe lots of things. Maybe secret habits, whatever it is, we need to know that guilt by itself is a sign of precisely nothing, except that you have a conscience.

You don't need the work of the Holy Spirit to feel guilty. Most honest unbelievers will feel guilty about things that they have done. But that guilt can just be worldly. What does worldly guilt look like? Well, we feel sorry about something that we've done, not because it was wrong and offensive to god, but because it filed on us.

It was humiliating. Our egos were wounded, didn't go the way we planned, and so we feel bad not because god's name has been dragged through the dirt because it didn't come off well for me. Or we feel guilty because other people think that we should. In other words, it's not the word of god which causes sorrow. It's the opinions of other people.

We feel guilty because we didn't do what they wanted, and we should have done. Or maybe we confuse a kind of religious guilt with godly sorrow. We have to sort of whip it out of ourselves in some strange religious way. And punish ourselves and wallow in the mud until we feel clean enough to come back to god. Or we confuse a resolution with godly sorrow and repentance.

Right? That's it now. I'm done. That's it. That's the old me.

Tomorrow and you me. I'm gonna get up. And I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna change things. I'm gonna change things. I'm gonna be a new man.

That will be my repentance. None of that requires the spirit of god. I mean, you think of Judith. We followed him right to the end in acts chapter 1, didn't we? He is the example of worldly sorrow, which leads to death, broken by guilt, full of regret, but no repentance, and it leads to death.

But you do need the Holy Spirit to truly repent under the word of God. Now repentance does involve guilt There must be some feelings of sorrow, feelings of regret over the way that we've treated god, but Holy Spirit repentance doesn't stay there. It brings those sins and that guilt to Christ trusting him to deal with it at the cross and seeking the help of the spirit to walk the other way. I mean, you think of that first sermon in acts. We looked at it this week's amazing.

In acts chapter 2, Peter stands up, and he says, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both lords and Christ. When the people heard this, what happened, they were cut to the heart And they said, brothers, what shall we do? That is sorrow. That is sorrow.

They were cut to the heart. Brothers, what are we gonna do? We've had a hand in this. We've crucified the son of god, the lord and the Christ. What have we done?

But will it be godly sorrow? Or worldly sorrow. Well, verse 38, Peter replied, repent, and be baptized every 1 of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3000 were added to their number that day. Is godly sorrow.

Godly sorrow, cut to the heart, grieved. Repenting, believing, baptizing. That's godly sorrow that leads to life. So that is the tester. Do you just feel guilty this morning about things that you've done or failed to do?

On its own, it's a sign of nothing. Or have you brought your sin to Christ to the cross of Christ to his empty grave, and are you now seeking to follow him by the help of his spirit as your lord. If not, can I say, repent this morning? Repent in this way this morning We have offended god with our many, many sins. And this is just so crucial, I think, to Paul's argument here, the fact that our pride or ego has been wounded is so much less serious than the belittling of god's glory That is our great sin that should cause us sorrow, lead us to be cut to the heart, and should cause us to turn to Jesus at times of refreshing and forgiveness and change may come to each 1 of us.

JI Packer puts it very well. Hopefully, this quote will come up. He says the gospel message first calls us all to be realistic in facing and admitting our sinfulness, our weakness, our actual transgressions and our consequent guilt before god. And then it addresses us in god's name substantially as follows. Look to Christ as your loving sin bearer and living lord embrace him as your savior and master and then in his presence resolved to leave behind the old life of conscious self-service, marred as it was by bitterness, self pity envy of others and feelings of failure in order that you may become his faithful, that is faith full disciple living henceforth by his rules under his care.

And of course as we know that is not just for unbelievers, because after all Paul was writing to a church here, If you want evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in a church, That is the question. Are the people of the church? Are we repentant people? Do we respond the right way to god's word with godly sorrow and lively faith, not just once at the start, but regularly. You see, personally, I'm very aware in my life that I often mistake being challenged with being repentant I hear things and listen to things and think, almost challenging.

It's challenging. I should probably do something about that. And I deceive myself into thinking because I've been challenged, I'm gonna be changed. Because I've been challenged, I'm gonna be repentant, but the work isn't done. And over time, the more I let myself do that, the more I am going to be stunted in my Christian life.

I need to repent this morning of not repenting properly and to ask god that I would feel this alarm this indignation, this longing to clear myself in the blood of Jesus that I would be sorrowful as god intends and not worldly in my sorrow. Of the 4 things that Paul says here, this is the crown. This is what makes him most glad they responded to the operation well. And so just as we close, can I ask how is that going for you? You see the trouble is admitting our sin is a type of weakness.

And as we've seen in this series, we want to avoid weakness like the plague. The last thing we wanna be known as is weak. Not a weak Christian who's still sinning, still failing, still doing things they should have stopped doing by now, still in need of the cross. But if we are gonna know the strength of Jesus Christ If we're gonna bring glory to Jesus Christ, we must be clear about that. This is so crucial for us worldly sorrow no matter what form it takes in some way depends upon you to put it right.

In some way, you are the solution to your own guilt. If you wanna know whether your sorrow is worldly, that's how you find out. Is it down to you to put it right? But godly sorrow means I'm weak, and god must help me. I need the cross of Jesus, the spirit of Jesus, the grace of Jesus, or I die.

And when we get to that point, his saving strength is made perfect in our sinful weakness. His saving strength is made perfect in our sinful weakness. That's godly sorrow, which leads to life. And so finally, I wanna suggest 2 prayers for us. Firstly, that god would help us to be like these Corinthians in chapter 7, not just once, but always, that as we listen to the word of the great surgeon, we would experience godly sorrow, which leads to repentance.

Brothers and sisters, can we pray that for 1 another? That as we listen to the words of our father's surgeon, week in, week out, that our sorrow would not be worldly, but would be godly, repentant, life giving, fruit bringing, glorious repentance. But also let's pray that when that does happen, and when we do see signs of spiritual life in each other, let's rejoice. Like Paul did, we mustn't take each other's spiritual health for granted. We mustn't do that.

When they respond well, he encourages them. He rejoices, and we must be the same. If you've seen signs of godliness and growth in a brother and sister, why not tell them, encourage them delight with them, rejoice with them. Sometimes the surgeon's rebuke is gonna be needed. We've seen that But on the other side, we must also praise god for growth in the church.

If you've seen it, name it. Rejoice with the brother and sister encourage them. That's what Paul does here. He's over the moon. He's so happy that they're growing.

He tells them bless you. I'm so happy to hear it. We ought to encourage signs of spiritual life in each other. And in those ways, we will be imitating Paul, this apostle, this friend, this father, this surgeon. Let's bow our heads and pray together.

Father god, we thank you for this intimate portrait of Paul. Thank you that he was both surgeon and father, apostle and friend. Thank you that he wasn't afraid to put his church under the knife. He wasn't afraid to write things, severe things, cutting things, sin exposing things. In order that life might be granted to them.

We thank you that whenever he made the cut, He was doing so as a father who loved his spiritual children. We pray that as we minister to 1 another in this church, that you might give us grace to act in the same way that when we do need to put our finger on things that we would do so gently and with grace, longing that life would come. We thank you father for these Corinthians and for the Holy Spirit work, which took place in them. They didn't just feel sorrowful, They weren't just upset because their egos were wounded. They knew godly sorrow.

They were cut to the heart They regretted their sin. They were eager to see justice done. They wanted to clear themselves and to put things right by your grace. We pray that you would help us either for the first time this morning or for the thousandth time to repent in that way to be full of godly sorrow, which leads to life. We pray father that you would help us not to take each other's growth for granted, but that we would encourage 1 another.

We pray that our meetings together on Sundays wouldn't just be full of secular talk in a secular way about secular things, but we would encourage each other spiritually. We would comment on growth and holy spirit work in each other and rejoice with those who rejoice. Help us father to imitate to follow Paul's example as he followed the example of Christ, both as father, friend, surgeon, and apostle, and we are these things in Jesus' name.