SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_02: Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: A reading from Saint Paul's second letter to the Corinthians chapter seven, verses two through sixteen.
SPEAKER_01: Make room in your hearts for us.
SPEAKER_01: We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.
SPEAKER_01: I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.
SPEAKER_01: I am acting with great boldness toward you.
SPEAKER_01: I have great pride in you, I am filled with comfort, in all our affliction I am overflowing with joy.
SPEAKER_01: For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear 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 with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
SPEAKER_01: For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while.
SPEAKER_01: As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting, for you fell to godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
SPEAKER_01: For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
SPEAKER_01: For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment.
SPEAKER_01: At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.
SPEAKER_01: So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore we are comforted.
SPEAKER_01: And besides our own comfort we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
SPEAKER_01: For whatever boasts I made to him about you I was not put to shame.
SPEAKER_01: But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus is proved true, and his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_01: I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of God for the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Paul Lawler, I have the honor of serving as a senior pastor of Christ Methodist.
SPEAKER_00: We welcome you today.
SPEAKER_00: So, church family, there are moments in life when relationships hang in the balance.
SPEAKER_00: A marriage hangs in the balance, a friendship hangs in the balance.
SPEAKER_00: Churches can even hang in the balance.
SPEAKER_00: A family hangs in the balance.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is not whether there has been pain or not.
SPEAKER_00: The question is whether there is enough humility, enough repentance, enough grace, enough love for restoration of relationships to happen.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the Apostle Paul leads us in 2 Corinthians chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: And when he does, loved ones, this is not a cold theological lecture.
SPEAKER_00: This is a pastor fighting for the hearts of his people in a Godward way.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to have the honor of being very clear this morning when we understand that Christianity is not merely information, and certainly when it is or as it is as information, it's unto transformation.
SPEAKER_00: But as a part of that transformation, it's unto reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: It's reconciliation at the obvious level between God and us through his Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But it's also reconciliation based upon the gospel with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul, as you all know, has written a very painful letter in 1 Corinthians 1, as well as a middle letter that we don't have a copy of.
SPEAKER_00: And so when he wrote this letter, he had to say, or these letters, he said some very hard things to them.
SPEAKER_00: And in light of saying some hard things, the Corinthians had resisted him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they even questioned Paul's integrity at one point, and you may remember that as we've journeyed through 1 Corinthians as well as into 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: The Corinthian church had tolerated and enabled sin in the church without confronting it in love, and they had rejected Paul in the process on various levels, and they had wounded Paul deeply because they had had a deep friendship.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the Apostle Paul does not walk away.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason he doesn't walk away, loved ones, is because gospel-centered love does not easily quit on people.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why Paul begins in verse 2 in the section by saying to the church, make room in your hearts for us, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And this is really, if you think about it, kind of an astonishing statement because, after all, Paul is an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: He planted the church at Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: He had suffered with the Corinthians in persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he is pleading among them give me the relational space in your heart so I can speak into you.
SPEAKER_00: Just give me some relational space.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Again, verse 2 We have wronged no one.
SPEAKER_00: We have corrupted no one.
SPEAKER_00: We have exploited or taken advantage of no one.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Paul's saying to them, make room in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I have loved you honestly.
SPEAKER_00: I have handled and related to you truthfully.
SPEAKER_00: I have not manipulated you in any way.
SPEAKER_00: Which illustrates one of the tragedies in modern culture.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this people don't trust people easily anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We are very suspicious, particularly of institutions.
SPEAKER_00: We are guarded.
SPEAKER_00: We are cynical, sometimes for good reason, I'll say that, sometimes not.
SPEAKER_00: And many people, many people in culture, many people in churches have been wounded by others, wounded by a friend, wounded by a coach, wounded by a parent, wounded by a boss, wounded by another member of a church family.
SPEAKER_00: But loved ones, hear this carefully.
SPEAKER_00: A wounded heart can become a closed heart.
SPEAKER_00: And there's great danger there, loved one.
SPEAKER_00: Because eventually, when you close your heart because of a wound and you start protecting yourself and keeping your guard up, what happens as a result is you lose your ability to love and to receive love because you will not make yourself vulnerable any longer.
SPEAKER_00: And fear begins to control you.
SPEAKER_00: And rather than being in control, you are being controlled.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why Paul says to the church at Corinth, Loved ones, make room in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knows with a wound that people can shut down.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel of Jesus Christ always enlarges the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Sin shrinks the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Fear shrinks the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Pride, self-centeredness shrinks the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness shrinks the heart.
SPEAKER_00: But the grace of God always enlarges the heart.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel, what God's done in Christ out of his love for you, always enlarges the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It intensifies your relational capacity.
SPEAKER_00: And that should be true for every believer.
SPEAKER_00: Believer.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question as your relational capacity is deepened out of the love of God through his gospel in your own life, the question for us is this can you love deeply?
SPEAKER_00: Can you forgive honestly?
SPEAKER_00: Can you stay engaged when relationships become difficult?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm going to say something, loved ones, it could come off a little bit harsh, and I want you to know it's coming from love in your pastor's heart.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Immature people run when they're challenged relationally.
SPEAKER_00: Immature Christians, when they're challenged relationally, run.
SPEAKER_00: Mature Christians reconcile.
SPEAKER_00: Mature Christians will labor to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: They'll work at it.
SPEAKER_00: Mature Christians will labor to make a true peace, to be honest and deal with reality, but they will labor for reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Years ago, I remember a man telling me about a fracture in his family.
SPEAKER_00: It was very deep, very bitter.
SPEAKER_00: He and his brother, raised in the same home, obviously shared holidays together, memories, parents, grandparents.
SPEAKER_00: And then in adulthood, they were in business together.
SPEAKER_00: They had a disagreement, big falling out.
SPEAKER_00: It exploded into deep bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: Years passed.
SPEAKER_00: Marriages came and went.
SPEAKER_00: Funerals came and went.
SPEAKER_00: Children grew up not knowing their cousins.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, one brother got sick, very sick.
SPEAKER_00: The other brother chose to visit him in a hospital after they're not speaking for almost two decades.
SPEAKER_00: Neither of them knew exactly what to say.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, just one of them spoke up in the hospital room and whispered, This has been long enough.
SPEAKER_00: In church, there are some things that have simply been long enough.
SPEAKER_00: Long enough bitterness, long enough pride, long enough silence, long enough distance.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel of Jesus Christ says this.
SPEAKER_00: Listen closely.
SPEAKER_00: Make room in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Make room.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in verse 3, you are in our hearts, we would live or die with you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of your Bibles translate it to die together or to live together.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he use that strange language?
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Because what Paul's illustrating is don't you understand we're in covenant together?
SPEAKER_00: That not only in the New Testament has God made a way for us to know Christ, to know God eternally through Jesus, but God has also brought us in covenant with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to ask you to do anything cheesy right now, like look to your right, look to your left.
SPEAKER_00: These are your sisters and brothers in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But loved ones, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: The men and women around you, you're in covenant together.
SPEAKER_00: We matter to one another.
SPEAKER_00: This is covenantial love.
SPEAKER_00: This is not consumer Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a land of disposable relationships.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason that's so important, particularly in this era of history, is that today, oftentimes, people treat churches like restaurants.
SPEAKER_00: And that is, if I don't like this experience, I'll just move on.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go to another church.
SPEAKER_00: But biblical community is deeper than preference.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul's drawing out in these words.
SPEAKER_00: It's covenantial, it's covenant relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, he says, I'm acting with great boldness towards you.
SPEAKER_00: I have great pride in you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm filled with comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would he shift years like that?
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly he's correcting them, make room in your hearts, and then boom, shaka lockah.
SPEAKER_00: That's Greek for a major shift.
SPEAKER_00: I have great pride in you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm filled with comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why, church family.
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul, the apostle, is both truthful and tender.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to that.
SPEAKER_00: He confronts them, but he also comforts them.
SPEAKER_00: And I would submit to you, this is real pastoral ministry.
SPEAKER_00: This is a man who really cares about people.
SPEAKER_00: And that should be a lesson for us all.
SPEAKER_00: Truth wed with grace.
SPEAKER_00: Truth without love crushes people.
SPEAKER_00: Love without truth deceives people.
SPEAKER_00: But grace and truth wed together transforms people.
SPEAKER_00: Loved ones, make room in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Make room in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let's choose to do that together right now.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, give me grace to make room in my heart for you and your way, not only with you, but relationally.
SPEAKER_00: My marriage, my my business associates, my relationships that I play tennis with or golf with, or the person who said this or said that that hurt my feelings.
SPEAKER_00: Make room in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul opens up his personal life for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And I will get to the reason why.
SPEAKER_00: But what he does is he shifts and he opens up his heart, his personal life, and he did it in chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing it again here.
SPEAKER_00: He talks to the Corinthians how God comforts people in challenges.
SPEAKER_00: He calls, he uses the word downcast or even depressed.
SPEAKER_00: Some of your Bibles translate it that way.
SPEAKER_00: When he says in verse 5, our bodies had no rest, we were afflicted at every turn, conflicts on the outside and within, or fighting without and fear within.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul's describing here on a personal level in his own life is he's exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: He's troubled.
SPEAKER_00: He has anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: And I invite you to take note of that because a lot of us sometimes, when we read the Bible, we picture the apostles like they live lives six inches off the ground, when in reality, they are just like you and me.
SPEAKER_00: And the beauty is that Paul here is giving testimony to the Corinthian church that he knows what it's like to deal with discouragement.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you do too.
SPEAKER_00: And so he knows what it's like to smile publicly and at the same time struggle privately.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's describing here.
SPEAKER_00: And many of us here in this sanctuary know what it means to carry burdens that nobody else sees.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's financial pressure, maybe it's marriage pressure, maybe you're in a position of leadership and you know day to day the weight that carries.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's grief, maybe it is depression, maybe it's fear about the future or something that's unknown.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why Paul describes conflicts on the outside, fears within, fightings without, fears within, depending on the Bible translation.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 6, he says something, and this sounds a little odd, but it's one of the sweetest verses in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this.
SPEAKER_00: But God always loves it when the Bible says, but God, who comforts the downcast, take note of that.
SPEAKER_00: Not the self-sufficient, not the arrogant, not the proud, the downcast, the weary, the burden, the grievan, the grieving, the brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_00: And then let's ask this question just how did God comfort Paul by the coming of a brother in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: His name was Titus.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to invite you to think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: God is sovereign, God's gracious, he's able to make grace abound toward us, but God does something in Paul's life that's very practical.
SPEAKER_00: He sends a brother who's going to be an encouragement to him.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is comforted through the life of another believer.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we're praying, God help, and we want some type of supernatural looking intervention, and God brings us the means of grace, his means of grace in some very practical way.
SPEAKER_00: A friend, a phone call, a hug, a conversation, a word of encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Your church family, a timely word that someone speaks into your life in some way they didn't realize how deeply meaningful it was to you or how well-timed it was, but you walk away different, which reminds us all never to underestimate what we would call the ministry of presence.
SPEAKER_00: I remember, you know, as a pastor, it's impossible not to walk with people at times in tragedy and heartache.
SPEAKER_00: I remember, and I've done this more times than I can number.
SPEAKER_00: I don't certainly don't prefer it because you want what's best for people, but you hurt with people when there's a sudden death, a sudden tragedy in their family, and you're sitting with them in the emergency department, and the doctor brings the worst news possible.
SPEAKER_00: What do you say?
SPEAKER_00: Is it time to go off in a theological diatribe around suffering?
SPEAKER_00: When somebody asks, how could God allow this?
SPEAKER_00: You just give simple answers?
SPEAKER_00: No, you hurt with people.
SPEAKER_00: You pray with people, you cry with people, and you engage in silence with people.
SPEAKER_00: And every time that sister or brother comes back, sometimes months, sometimes years, thank you for being there.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the greatest ministry body of Christ that you'll give to one another is just refusing to disappear.
SPEAKER_00: When your sisters or brothers are walking through difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: Loved ones, that's what Titus did for Paul and church.
SPEAKER_00: This matters.
SPEAKER_00: You do realize encouragement is spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_00: It's a way to win.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people around you this morning that are barely holding on.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to encourage you, based upon what we're reading here, what we're seeing in God's word, that an encouraging text matters, a prayer matters.
SPEAKER_00: The conversations that you have with others that uplifts and encourages others, it matters.
SPEAKER_00: God comforts the downcast, but often it's you that God uses practically in his sovereignty to work his will and good pleasure in us.
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul, as he writes these words, really journeys into the heart of the matter of what he wants to say to the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: Where he takes us now is into the theme of godly grief leading to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds very strange, but this is really the heart of the passage right here.
SPEAKER_00: So he says this, verse 8, for even if I caused you sorrow, some of your translations, for even if I made you grieve by my, these are previous letters, he says this, I do not regret it.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's a question.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you say, hey, I know my letters really disturbed you, but I don't regret that they disturbed you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why, church family, because their grief led them to something holy.
SPEAKER_00: Their grief led them to get their hearts into loving alignment with a loving God.
SPEAKER_00: And listen to what he writes in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: For godly grief, some of your Bible say godly sorrow brings a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether you realize it or not, loved one, verse 10, chapter 7, 2 Corinthians, one of the most important verses in all the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to invite you, if your mind is wondering, can I just encourage you with some deep thought here?
SPEAKER_00: Stop.
SPEAKER_00: Just focus for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 7.10.
SPEAKER_00: Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is one of the clearest distinctions in all of the Bible between what is called conviction and condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Conviction and condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the contrast that Paul's pointing out here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a worldly grief that exists, and it's when a person falls into some type of sin and they get caught.
SPEAKER_00: They're caught and they say, I hate the consequences, or I am sorry, I got caught.
SPEAKER_00: And that can simply be a worldly grief.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is sharing in this verse that there is the gift of a godly sorrow, a gift of a godly grief that is centered in God, where what happens in the heart, God develops through the conviction of the Holy Spirit a hatred for the sin and what it's done to you and what it's done to others.
SPEAKER_00: Worldly sorrow is self-centered.
SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow, godly grief, is God-centered.
SPEAKER_00: This is why David, when he fell into sin, murder, adultery, manipulation, lying, and it got deep in his own heart.
SPEAKER_00: When David said, God, against you and you alone I have sinned, what's happening is he's experiencing the grace of a godly sorrow over his sin.
SPEAKER_00: He recognizes that as he's rebelled against the design that God had for him, ultimately he's rebelling against his designer.
SPEAKER_00: And God has gifted him the grace of a godly sorrow, which is why he prays in Psalm 51, Oh, God, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're aware another contrast in the word of God would be Judas and Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Judas and Peter both committed the same sin.
SPEAKER_00: They both denied Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: However, Judas had a worldly sorrow, went, and in his grief around the consequences, hung himself.
SPEAKER_00: Peter had a godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Judas a worldly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Peter a godly sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Both sinned against Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: One ran from God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, on the other hand, ran toward God's grace, which tells us something very significant.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance is not merely feeling bad.
SPEAKER_00: It's much more than that.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance is turning around.
SPEAKER_00: It is possible to cry and never repent.
SPEAKER_00: It is possible to feel deeply emotional about something that was wrong but never change.
SPEAKER_00: But when the Holy Spirit truly convicts a believer, something shifts.
SPEAKER_00: We begin hating what we used to defend.
SPEAKER_00: I remember a young woman in our church plant, won't call her by name, but she had a proclivity toward gossip.
SPEAKER_00: She would get a little morsel of gossip and kind of like just a sly fox would just pop over up over here and say disparaging things about other people.
SPEAKER_00: And then a couple of weeks later, she'd pop up over here and ask like these kind of leading questions that were gossipy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I wonder why she always does this or why does he always do that?
SPEAKER_00: It's the kind of thing that just kind of slightly impugned people.
SPEAKER_00: And just she would just do that over here.
SPEAKER_00: But one day she was reading her Bible, and she read the words that a person who gossips will not inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And she said she began to have trouble sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I began to realize the Holy Spirit was convicting me for gossip.
SPEAKER_00: And she began to change.
SPEAKER_00: I remember at that day in a community group where she said, Could I have a moment?
SPEAKER_00: And she took the floor and said, Many of you know I have struggled with this sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's affected you.
SPEAKER_00: It's affected the people in our church family.
SPEAKER_00: And she says, God has convicted me.
SPEAKER_00: And I am changing.
SPEAKER_00: I am repenting of my past patterns.
SPEAKER_00: And God, as He convicted her, she began to confess what used to be concealed in some way.
SPEAKER_00: So what when we know we're experiencing the grace of a godly sorrow, we begin surrendering what once controlled us.
SPEAKER_00: Loved ones, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're driving toward a bridge that's out on a highway, you don't turn around just because you're feeling emotional.
SPEAKER_00: You turn around because you know the bridge is out.
SPEAKER_00: That's repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance is not punishment, it's really a manifestation of the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: And God warns us, not because he's a tyrant.
SPEAKER_00: He warns us because he loves us, because he knows sin is damaging you.
SPEAKER_00: It's damaging others.
SPEAKER_00: And it damages the intimacy that you are designed for to have with God in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we know his motive is love because we're made in God's image.
SPEAKER_00: A parent who never corrects a child does not love a child.
SPEAKER_00: A doctor who never gives the diagnosis to a patient does not love the patient.
SPEAKER_00: A pastor who refuses to confront sin in love does not love the church.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul the apostle loved them enough to wound them unto healing.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 11 shows us that what happened among the Corinthians was true repentance.
SPEAKER_00: See what this godly sorrow has produced in you?
SPEAKER_00: What earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what concern and zeal.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, real repentance changes direction.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happened in that church.
SPEAKER_00: Loved one, it wasn't perfection overnight, but it was a transformed trajectory.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the good news for every single one of us in this sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: No sin is beyond the reach of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta say it again.
SPEAKER_00: No sin.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how dark you think it is, don't let the devil rob you of what God in Christ offers you.
SPEAKER_00: No sin is beyond the reach of the grace of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: The cross of Jesus Christ is sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: You may carry shame today, you may carry hidden sin.
SPEAKER_00: You may carry regret, but Jesus did not die merely to improve you.
SPEAKER_00: He died to redeem you.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy says, hide, go hide, just cover yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus Christ says, Come home.
SPEAKER_00: Come home.
SPEAKER_00: His arms are open.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel repentance, the grace of a godly sorrow really produces the joy of God in our hearts and lives.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's grief, the apostle, is also turned to joy.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because reconciliation is happening, because repentance restored fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, Paul says, I joy, I rejoice, which means he's experiencing joy repeatedly because I have complete confidence in you.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice this.
SPEAKER_00: Note I want you to notice this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this, church.
SPEAKER_00: We're closing here.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me comfort you with those words.
SPEAKER_00: But don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that the Apostle Paul does not weaponize their past failures.
SPEAKER_00: Note that, church.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is what the enemy loves to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: The devil loves to keep forgiven sins alive in the minds of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: But when repentance is real and grace from God is received, the gospel restores.
SPEAKER_00: Not because people are perfect, but because Jesus Christ is merciful.
SPEAKER_00: He's good like that, loved one.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've said to you from time to time, I've tried to say it without sounding maybe a little dorky, but just trying to be honest.
SPEAKER_00: I've grown to love this city.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I love about this city is the restored buildings.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of restored buildings, but I I particularly appreciate Crosstown Concourse, if I'm saying it right.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know all the facts associated with that building, but I know years ago that building fell into disrepair.
SPEAKER_00: And it needed restoring.
SPEAKER_00: And now I think she's an architectural beauty.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people in our church family that have offices in that building.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime I'm meeting one of them for lunch, I always stand and stare as one who loves art and good design.
SPEAKER_00: I just marvel at the restoration.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to remind you, just like I reminded you last week, this is what the gospel of Jesus Christ does in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Restores.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus specializes in restoration.
SPEAKER_00: He restores marriages.
SPEAKER_00: He restores churches.
SPEAKER_00: He restores wounded hearts.
SPEAKER_00: He restores fallen people.
SPEAKER_00: And some of the most beautiful Christians that I know are not the Christians who've never had a failure.
SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed there are some of those somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the people who've encountered the mercy of God and been restored.
SPEAKER_00: So what does this passage call us to do today?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, open your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Make room in your hearts for God.
SPEAKER_00: Let God soften what bitterness may have hardened.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, receive God's comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Know this, the Lord sees the downcast.
SPEAKER_00: If that's where you are, you're not abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord sees.
SPEAKER_00: Let Him be your provision.
SPEAKER_00: Third, respond to conviction with repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Be mindful that the conviction of the Holy Spirit around sin is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It is a manifestation of the love of God operating in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't run from conviction.
SPEAKER_00: Run toward the grace of God with great love and fervor.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, pursue reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Make room in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel reconciles us vertically and horizontally.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, as you all know, this passage points to the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus Christ is the one who made room for sinners.
SPEAKER_00: He made room for you and he made room for me.
SPEAKER_00: He comforts the brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_00: He reconciles us to a loving God.
SPEAKER_00: And at the cross, both justice and mercy met together.
SPEAKER_00: And because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, restoration is possible for marriages, for families, for churches, for prodigals, and for you.
SPEAKER_00: So today, do not harden your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Make room for God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Make room for the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Make room for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, let it be so.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_02: We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at ChristchurchMemphis.org.
SPEAKER_02: We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.