This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. This is day two of our look through 2 Corinthians 7. We're going to look at verses 2 to 9 today. As we look at these verses, Paul begins to talk to the Corinthians again about the hurts, about the difficulties that they were encountering in their relationships with each other and their relationship that had had some really tough things that Paul needed to say because of what the Corinthians were facing in their church. Let me read for you what he had to say in verses 2 to 4. Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have exploited no one. 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 great confidence in you. I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged. In all our troubles, my joy knows no bounds. These next few days as we walk through what Paul says to the Corinthians, we're going to get an in-depth course on difficult relationships and how to deal with difficult relationships as we see how Paul dealt with the Corinthians. You might remember from earlier, Paul had needed to talk honestly and strongly to the Corinthian church about some sins that they were allowing into the church. And then he had to talk to them about the negative reactions that they had against him wanting to push him out of their lives except other leaders because of what he had to say to them. He had a problem. Now when you have a problem with another person as Paul had with the Corinthians, you can either confront it or you can ignore it. Ignore it and the problem is going to continue. Of course it's going to continue if you ignore it. But you don't have to face the relational tension that you have to face if you confront it. You won't see any change but you don't have to face the tension. And because of that, most of us, we want to ignore it. Confront it and let's just be honest, Paul talks about what's going to happen in these verses we're going to look at today. Confront it and there will be discomfort. There will be sorrow. And that discomfort and sorrow that we don't like, that has the power to bring change. Now it might also bring rejection, you're not sure, but it has the power to bring change. So the question is, am I just going to have a lack of courage about this? I want to, we all want to, and say I'm just going to ignore this one. Let's let somebody else take care of this and just let it continue to fester, let it continue to be a bad relationship or will I confront it? There's great risk in confronting a difficult relationship. That's why most of us never do it. We'd rather things stay the way they are than take the risk. Some risks in life, they're fun. Climbing a mountain, that can be a fun risk. Riding a roller coaster, that can be a fun risk. Taking the risk to confront does not start fun. There can be some joy in the end, Paul talks about it in these verses. He'd come to a place of joy eventually, but it doesn't start fun. Paul gives us some insight here that it starts with the emotions of discomfort and sorrow. Discomfort on the part of the one who's doing the confronting and sorrow on the part of the one who's being confronted. First Paul talks about discomfort, his own discomfort. Listen to what he had to say in verses five to seven, "For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours 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. The truth is, it's scary to speak the truth to someone when a relationship is going sideways because you do not know how they're going to react. They might get mad, they might walk out, they might misjudge your motivation, they might attack you. You have no idea what's going to happen. It's scary, you're taking a great risk, so many of us never do it. The truth is, taking a great risk comes alongside of that comes the fact that it doesn't feel good at first. Paul talks here about fears within that make you feel downcast. Who wants to feel downcast? So Paul had feelings of discomfort over what he needed to say to them. He wondered how are they going to react. And finally Titus goes to them, Titus who is Paul's younger partner in ministry, went to the Corinthians, and he brought back good news to Paul. So as uncomfortable as it was for him to say the difficult thing to the Corinthians, Paul is encouraged, he's comforted, and he has a burst of joy in his life that they had the right kind of sorrow over what he'd said. Now that's a key to understanding what happens when we have confrontations in our lives. It's the key to understanding what happens in your own life when you're confronted by the scripture, when you're confronted by a sermon, when you're confronted by somebody else about some change that needs to happen in your life. You need to have the right kind of sorrow. So first there's discomfort on the part of the one who's doing the confronting, then there's sorrow. Verses 8 to 9, here's what Paul had to say about that. "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 to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us. " Paul had to confront the Corinthians about some sins in their life and some ways that they were accepting the sins of others that were staining the entire church. Paul had to tell them, "You're not perfect. You're struggling here. " The question all of us have to face at times in our lives is how do you handle the fact that you're not perfect? Because you're not. We all know that we're not, but how do you handle the fact that you're not perfect? And I guess most of us would say pretty well, but here's the second question. How do you handle it when someone else points out that you're not perfect? That's the place that we struggle. That's the place that it's tough for us. And the right response Paul teaches us here. When you realize your own sin, your own struggles, when you see where you need to grow, Paul teaches us the right response is the right kind of sorrow. Now he's not talking about grief here. I want to be very careful. Grief is the emotion that comes over some loss in your life because you've lost something, someone. He's talking about sorrow here, and sorrow is over something that you have done wrong, some way that you have hurt others, some way that you have sinned, something that you've done wrong. And when you've done something wrong and someone points it out, there's a lot of ways you can respond. You can respond with pride. You could respond with the wrong kind of sorrow. Or you could respond with the right kind of sorrow. Let's walk through this. In fact, the next few days we're going to walk through this. In these few verses, Paul gives us a theology of sorrow. These are some of the most important verses in the Bible for you to understand and how to deal with your sin and your relationship with God and with the people in your life. First Paul says when it comes to sorrow, number one thing we've got to do as believers is you've got to appreciate sorrow. Appreciate it. Appreciate the place of sorrow in your life and appreciate the grace of sorrow in your life. Appreciate the place of sorrow in your life. Back in verse 7, Paul talks about the joy that he had in the face of sorrow. How can sorrow and joy go hand in hand? If ever a couple seem mismatched, this one certainly does. The joy comes not because of the sorrow itself, but because you've learned to appreciate the value of that sorrow. What it can mean in our lives. What it can turn into into our lives. In verse 8 here, we just read Paul talks about a willingness to cause sorrow without regret. Paul was willing to cause some regret that only lasted for a little while because he appreciated the place of sorrow and that in the end it could result in something powerful, some change in the life of the Corinthians. You appreciate the place of sorrow because you appreciate the grace of sorrow. What's the grace of sorrow? Here it is. Our sorrow can lead to the grace of repentance. In verses 9 and 10, Paul says, "I regret the hurt. I didn't want to see you hurt, but I rejoice in the repentance. " Many, many times in my life, your life, the voice of God's grace begins to be heard in those times of sorrow. Do Christians need to repent? You better believe we do. Repentance and repentance starts with sorrow. Now, once you become a believer, all your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. But as we live our lives as believers, we've got to repent of those attitudes, those actions, those words. We've got to turn around. That's what the word repentance means. Turn around and begin living the way that the Lord wants us to live again. Here's the process that happens in our lives, three-part process. Number one, I experience pain. Number two, I feel sorrow. And then if I'll listen to the Lord, number three, I choose to repent. Now, out of that sorrow, I could be prideful. Out of that sorrow, I could just have a sense of dread. But if I'm listening to the Lord, if I have a godly kind of sorrow, I choose to repent. Second Corinthians 7-10 in the Living Bible says, "God sometimes uses sorrow in our lives to help us to turn away from sin and to seek eternal life. " He uses sorrow to help us to turn away from that which is destructive sin and to seek that which is the greatest in our life, eternal life. Human nature is that if we don't feel pain, we keep going in the same direction. It's the pain that we feel and the sorrow that we have that causes us to repent. Now, I want to be real clear about this. I'm not saying that the pain is good. What is good is what God does in our lives through the pain when we turn to him. He gets us out of a destructive lifestyle. He keeps us from going over a cliff. He leads us into eternal life. He teaches us some principles from his word. That's what he does in our lives. When our son Luke was 12, he had his appendix taken out. He woke up in the middle of the night with some incredible pain in his stomach. And because of that pain, we took him to the emergency room. Because we took him to the emergency room, they decided he's got an appendix that needs to come out. And so they took his appendix out. What happened because of the pain was a good thing. If he hadn't had the pain, we wouldn't have known about the trouble. If we hadn't known he had trouble, his appendix would have become more infected. It would have burst. It would have spread infection throughout his entire body. So it was a good thing. In fact, there's two good things about it. First, it saved Luke from infection. And also, it gave me a good illustration for right now. The fact that when you have pain, God intends it not just to make you feel bad, but to make you feel a kind of sorrow that results in repentance. Repentance. I turn around. Repentance will live the kind of way God wants me to live. Now we're going to talk about this some more tomorrow. But as we end today, let's go back to those three things that happened in our lives. You may be going, you probably are going through this right now. I experience pain. I feel sorrow. I choose to repent. There's some pain that you're experiencing in your life, your relationships. And it's easy to deflect that by blaming someone else, maybe even blaming God. But what's your part in it? Even if it's one percent, one tenth of one percent, what's your part in it? You own that part and you feel sorrow over that part. God, I'm sorry. I want this to change. I don't want this to be this way. And then out of that, you choose to repent. God, turn me around. Let me live the kind of way you want me to live. Our Father, as we pray, we bring these hurts that we have in our lives to you. And we realize that many times the hurts in our lives, they're caused by someone else, something else. They have nothing to do with the decisions we've made. But there are so many times that the pain in our lives, it has everything to do with the decision we've made, the temptation we've followed, a sin we've gotten caught up in, a pride that we've allowed. Lord, instead of deflecting that, ignoring that, instead of blaming others right now, help us to experience a godly kind of sorrow, just to say, Lord, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know you've given me. I know you love me in spite of it all. I know Jesus died on the cross for this, but I am sorry. And I want to live the kind of way you want me to live. I want to live out the life that Jesus has for me today. I pray this in your name. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look at one of the most important faith lessons we can learn from Paul anywhere as he talks about the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.