Let's get into this text. It's a good one, not that there's not good ones. It's a particularly heavy and freeing text all at the same time. So grab your Bibles. Second Corinthians is where we're at. We've been marching through here. We've kind of jumped back in after a little bit of break. We're going to be in here till the end of May. And Second Corinthians, Chapter 7 is where we're at. We'll put the verse on the screen, but it's always best if you see it, if you got it open in your lap or your phone or something. I want you to see the words that we're talking about. And we got a section where, if you look at the. The header of the section, it's called Paul's Joy. Who wouldn't like joy? Everybody's in favor of joy, right? Yeah, that's like a good one. But. But he's going to talk about grief in there as well. So there's an aspect of joy where we could be like, yeah, we all want that. And Paul. It's talking about Paul's joy. We want to know, like, why is Paul so joyful? Or if you're familiar with Paul in the story, you might be like, how is he so joyful? Because Second Corinthians is the most autobiographical letter Paul wrote. And he goes into detail in this letter more than any other about all his hardships and his sufferings and his difficulties. And yet he's so full of joy. Now, how does that happen? And how does it happen for us? Like, how do we lay hold of some of that joy? And what's the path to joy? That's different than what most people might assume, because the common assumption in our world is our joy is going to be tethered to our circumstances. So if life is going well, then I'm going to feel well, and if life isn't going well, then I'm not going to feel well. And it's so tethered to circumstances. The problem is that's not the case for Paul. Paul has a difficult life. He faces all kinds of challenges, yet he continues to talk about his joy. And it's like, I want to lay hold of that joy, and where does that come from and how do we get to it? And he's also talking about grief in this passage, and we'll get into that a little bit. But here's the odd connection. What if grief, the right kind of grief, is actually key to deeper joy in our Life. Now, you hear that? You may think that sounds crazy. Like, I would never think to connect grief or guilt or shame. We'll get into that a little bit to joy. So what's the connection between those now? Right now, in our culture, there is just this repulsive reaction against anything that has to do with guilt or shame. Like, anything that makes you feel guilty or makes you feel ashamed must be wrong. It must be bad. Like, even coming to church, you're like, we're here to feel better. What if part of my job is to help you feel bad? Well, we'll see. What if there's a good kind of shame and a good kind of guilt that's actually helpful for our joy? See, it seems like in our culture right now, sin or like sinful acts or sinful behavior is not even necessarily seen as bad. But anything that might make you feel guilty or shameful, that's bad. That's bad, and we shouldn't have any time for that. But what if there's a type of grief, a type of guilt, a type of shame that's actually good for us, that's actually key to deeper joy. Now, I bet none of you came to church this morning thinking, I'll probably hear a message in defense of shame. You didn't probably think that. But you're here now, and we're in this text, and we want to better understand it. But here's a statement that Paul said multiple times, specifically to the Corinthians in their first letter. He says, I say this to your. You want to take a guess? To your shame. He's like, I say this to your shame. And what he's saying is the words that I'm saying, you should feel ashamed. Like, the point of me saying this is that so that you feel shame. Now, why would Paul do that? It's like, because he's a jerk. Is he just mean? Or does he want something from them or want something for them? And shame or guilt is a path to getting there. Because here's what I'm saying. There's a treasure map to joy in our text today. But Paul's telling us to look in a place we would never think to look. He said, you look in this place and there's a joy that you wouldn't expect to find. And I say we look there because it's really common in our world for people to look for joy in all the typical places, and all they find is momentary happiness or distraction and relief. But I'm talking about a joy that's not tethered. To a circumstance that supersedes any of those things that you go through, that joy still stays there. And this is what Paul's talking about. So let's get into it. Second Corinthians, chapter seven. Everybody turn there and ready to go. All right, let's get a larger context of this letter, because it's going to be really helpful in making sense and understanding with some of the words that Paul says in our text. So Paul planted the church in Corinth. You could read about it in Acts 18. Pours his heart out in this church, cares for the people in this church, but he's a church planner, so he gets this established, and he moves on. And as he moves on, he sends Timothy back to Corinth to check it out. Says, tell me how they're doing. Well, they're not doing well. It's a bad report. It's like, no, they're getting corrupted. There's false teachers in there. There's moral compromise. They're starting to look more like the culture than they're impacting the culture. It's not good. So Paul then visits, and he has a painful visit. What's this referred to? Like, there's a clash between him and then these super apostles that he's kind of sarcastically refers to in the letter that have kind of been these false teachers that are coming in. And we don't exactly know what happened. But there was a conflict. It was a painful visit. It didn't go well. So he leaves, and then he sends Titus with a letter. Not. Not Second Corinthians, we don't have this letter, but it's referred to as a harsh letter. Like, he sends back a letter with Titus, and he calls them to the mat. Like, he goes at them and he calls them out in this letter. It was a very bold letter, a harsh letter. And Titus delivers his letter, and then Titus brings news back to Paul. Good news. Okay. They responded well to your hard words. So that's the context that's going to color in some of what Paul's saying in our verses today. All right, so let's start in verse two, and I'm going to read the first part of the. Our section and then the last chunk of our section, and then the meats and them. It's a little bit of a sandwich. The meat's in the middle. But we want to understand, okay, what's. What's being said here. And you get the emotion in the beginning and the end, but then you get, like, how you get to that emotion in the middle. So here's what he says on the front end. Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have taken advantage of no one. 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 like I love you, like we're in this together. And he says, I'm acting with great. And what's that word? Boldness. Underline that word, because that's going to come into play. I'm acting with great boldness towards you. Like, I'm saying some hard, challenging things. I have great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort in all our affliction. I'm overflowing with joy. So he's happy, then. You kind of pick up the same mood in verse 13. Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For whatever boast I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. So Paul was building them up, despite all the bad reports, and he's like, no, I. I know these people, right? Yeah, that's a hard time. And they're being deceived. But these are. These are good people. Like, go and challenge them. Like, you'll see they're going to respond. So Paul's boasting to them about them, to Titus, for I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has 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. I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you. So you get good vibes in the beginning of our section, the end of our section, A lot of good vibes. I love you. I rejoice in you. I'm confident in you. I'm overjoyed with you. I have pride in you. But what's the meat in the middle? Like, what's going on in the middle of our text? That's this kind of unexpected course to get into those emotions. Let's go back. We're gonna look at verse five, and we'll start working through the middle of this section. So here's what he says in verse five. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn. Fighting without and fear within. So what's this fighting without and fear within that he's talking about. What's the struggle that he's having? Well, if you look over at chapter 11, and we've. We've referenced this before, but over in chapter 11, in verse 23, he starts kind of listing some fighting without. It's like imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashings, less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers from false brothers in toil and hardship through many sleepless night and hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. That's all the fighting without. Like, this is my external life. I got all these challenges, all these persecutions and oppositions. Okay, so what's the fighting within? Well, the very next verse, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. That's the fear within. I'm worried about all these churches I planted. I'm worried about you. I'm concerned, Corinthians, that I poured my heart out to you and you're getting deceived by false teachers and pulled away. And I have a concern that you're not being faithful, that you're being lied to and you're believing it. So he has this kind of fatherly concern for this church, and then he says this, verse 6. But God who comforts the downcast. Now, if we had more time, I'd love to do a message on fighting depression with good theology and community. So God comforts the downcast. God does that. And here's how he does it. He 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 rejoice still more. So Paul's rejoicing because the Corinthians comfort Titus. Titus comforts Paul like good news abounds. And God's doing this, and they find comfort in it. But here's what happens next. It gets a little deeper here. Verse 8. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, now that letter is the reference to the harsh letter that he sent. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while as it is. I rejoice not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into what? Repentance. So there's a little bit of, like, what are you saying here, Paul? Like, you regret sending the letter, or you don't regret sending the letter? He's like, I made you grieve. Like my words, my harsh letter that I wrote to you. I made you feel guilty. I made you feel ashamed. And I don't feel bad about it. I'm glad I did it. No, I didn't enjoy doing it. I didn't take pleasure in making you feel bad, But I'm glad I did it because you feeling bad led to you changing. That's what I was after. So it's like, I'm willing to provide temporary grief or guilt or shame if it will help you repent. Like, nobody likes feeling bad. But feeling bad is often a prerequisite to changing. Paul's like, I'm willing to help you feel bad, to help you feel guilty, to help you feel ashamed, if that's what's going to take to lead you to change. Now, when we hear grief, we tend to think of like, a loved one died and I'm sad. That's not the way Paul's using it here. He's talking about, you should have grief or you should feel bad because you're behaving badly and feeling bad about your behavior is fitting. In fact, if you don't feel bad about your behavior, that's bad. We got problems. So I'm here to help you feel bad about your bad behavior. The word shame is a recent thing that it has negative connotations in our culture, in history. It's a very recent thing, and it's a very Western thing. But the word shame actually comes from a word that just means a sudden consciousness of everything. Like you suddenly aware I'm in the wrong. And Paul's like, I'm trying to help you have a consciousness of your error. I'm saying this to your shame. I want you to feel guilty because you should feel guilty about how you're acting. And actually, that feeling of guilty can be very helpful in your repenting. So that's what he's trying to produce in them. You got to see this. Paul is not primarily concerned with their comfort or their feelings. He is primarily concerned with their godliness. And he's willing to say hard things for the sake of their godliness. Remember, we had you underline that bold word. This is bold discipleship. He's saying, I'm going to say tough things. I'm going to say things you don't want to hear. I'm going to say things that make you feel guilty and ashamed because I'm trying to fight for your godliness. That's what he's saying. Now he gives us some more explanation to this. Look at the end of verse nine, into verse ten says, for you felt a godly grief, so he titles it so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. So Paul introduces two kinds of grief here. You got godly grief and you got worldly grief, but they're both grief. They both express the same emotion. So how do you tell which is which? How do you tell what is godly grief and what is worldly grief? Well, from the text, he gives us some things to look for. Well, godly grief is good. He's talking about as a good thing, and he says it produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret. So the section is titled Paul's Joy, and a lot of it is about him rejoicing over the Corinthians. But we also get a window into the Corinthians joy. It's like this godly grief that got produced into you that led to repentance. Guess what? It comes with no regrets. Like at the end of your life, you're going to be glad for these decisions. Nobody regrets repenting. This is for your joy as well. And this is a good thing. Worldly grief, on the other hand, is bad. It's portrayed in here as a negative. And it tricks you. And it tricks you because it is grief. He doesn't deny that there's a grief there. You can see there's a grief, but it's a tricky grief because you can see an emotion, but it's empty emotion or it doesn't produce a fruit. A worldly grief is like a crab apple tree, right? It'll bloom and it'll look pretty, but you can't eat that fruit. And he's saying, yeah, you're in tears, you're upset, you're expressing all kinds of grief, but there's no fruit to that and it produces death. What does he mean by that? Well, it's the opposite of godly grief. It doesn't lead to repentance and it doesn't lead to salvation. So I want us to get this, guys, listen, there is A type of grief over sin that is not repentance. Don't mistake. Feeling bad for something you've done is the same thing as repentance. There is a type of grief over sin that is not repentance. It is not enough just to feel bad about your sin. A lot of people feel bad about their sin. You don't need to be born again to feel bad about your sin. There is a lot of different ways to feel bad about your sin. You can feel bad that you hurt somebody you love. You can feel bad that you got caught. You can feel bad that you got exposed. You can feel bad that you got embarrassed. You can feel bad that you lost your job. Like, there's a lot of different ways that you can feel bad about sin and all the earthly consequences that come with it. But that is very different than feeling bad that you sinned against a holy God. And Paul's saying, hey, there's two types of grief here that I'm looking for one of them, and one leads to salvation and one leads to death. So he sends them this harsh letter because he's looking for a result from it. So here's what we need to know. Why we feel bad about our sin matters. Why we feel bad about our sin matters. You can think of it this way. Godly grief is God centered. Worldly grief is worldly centered or man centered. So Godly grief is primarily concerned about this vertical relationship. Not only concerned, it has concern for horizontal relations too. But the primary concern is this vertical relationship. I sinned against God. That's what matters most. One of the ways that you see this is when David sinned with Bathsheba. And he writes in Psalm 51, against you and you alone, O Lord, have I sinned. And you're like, well, I think it affected Bathsheba. I think it affected Uriah, her husband. I think it affected the nation. Like a lot of people were affected by your sin. Why is he saying, against you and you alone have I sinned? He's saying that the highest offense of my sin was to God. That was the primary offense. I first and foremost offended a holy God. And godly grief sees that. Godly grief gets that the greatest offense of my sin is not horizontal but vertical. Worldly grief focuses only on the horizontal. And it's genuine. I really feel bad that I hurt someone I love. I really feel bad that I messed up. I really feel bad that I lied. But it's only a horizontal concern. And Paul gives, like, language to things that we see. In fact, he gives Language to something that it didn't have language for in the Gospels. But when you hear this, you look back at the Gospels and like, oh, I think that shoe fits. Because it's interesting that Judas and Peter sin pretty much the same way. I mean, Peter denies Christ three times, and Judas betrays him. It's pretty similar. And both of them feel really bad about what they did. In fact, Judge, Judas tries to give the money back. He's like, I don't want it. He tries to give the money back, but he goes out and hangs himself. And Peter goes on to become an apostle and plant churches and write books in the Bible. So what happened? Both people sin, both people feel bad. Two very different outcomes. Because why we feel bad matters. And when you think, well, what does this have to do with joy? Cause I don't think Peter or Judas were having fun in that moment. No, I'm not talking about fun, talking about joy. And it's not joyful in the moment, but it sets a trajectory. It sets a trajectory for joy or death or how he puts it, salvation or death, or the way he puts it in this text is with no regrets. Like, when you have godly grief, that leads to repentance, it leads to no regrets. But when you have worldly grief, that doesn't lead to repentance, it leads to regrets. He said, you're going to set a different trajectory on how you deal or why you feel bad about your sin. So worldly grief is a real thing. It's a tricky lie. But just because that's a threat or a real thing that people display doesn't mean we should avoid guilt and shame altogether or that guilt and shame should never be a part of our discipleship. It's a useful tool that Paul uses. You got to get this, guys. Paul, who loves them, is glad they feel bad and is glad that he made them feel bad. He didn't enjoy that. He didn't enjoy making them feel bad. But he's rejoicing over their repentance. And he's like, if I have to make you feel guilty to help you repent, I'm glad to do that. I'll play that role. Listen, guys, it's not loving to protect someone's feelings at the expense of their soul. Feeling bad can be a good thing. Feeling guilty can be a good thing. Feeling shame can be a gift from God. But why you feel guilty and why you feel ashamed matters. So how can you tell? How can you tell if you got good guilt or bad guilt? Good shame or bad shame? Well, look at verse 11. He says this for. Because Satan. See what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you. So right at the back, godly grief is going to produce something. Like, you're going to see something. There's going to be some evidence of this godly grief. But also what eagerness to clear yourselves. What ignition, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. At every point you have. What's that word? Proved yourself innocent in the matter. So your godly grief has proved itself. It's revealed itself, it's shown itself. There's been fruit to support it. Is that godly grief proves itself. There's fruit that lines up with it. He kind of gives some descriptive words behind it. This earnestness, this eagerness, or an indignation. Like indignation that's like anger. What are you talking about here? He's like, yeah, you were upset probably over how Paul was treated. Like you're bothered by sin, you're angry at sin. Or fear. What does that have to do. Fear of God. You need to have a fear of a holy God and offending a holy God. Or a longing, probably a longing to make things right. Yeah, Paul, we know you were mistreated. We hate that. We understand God's holiness and his judgment and we want to make this right. A zeal. It says zeal. Probably a zeal for obedience. It's. It says that in verse 15, that their obedience of them all or a punishment. What is punishment talking about here? Probably they dealt with the offenders against Paul. Like, we dealt with that problem. We didn't sweep it under the rug. We dealt with those individuals. Like, we're going to make it right. It kind of reminds you of when Jesus was teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. Like, hey, if your eye causes you to sin, cut it out. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. He's saying, take sin seriously. Be willing to do whatever you need to do to take sin seriously. And he's saying, I challenge you. I called you to the mat. Like, I sent this harsh letter and called you out. And here's what I saw from you. You take sin seriously. You had a zeal for obedience. You had a passion, you had a hatred towards that sin. Like, I see this in you. I see the fruit. And godly grief proves itself. It shows itself. There are signs to godly grief. Oh, you really hate your sin. You really want to change. You really feel bad about this. It bears fruit. There's evidence of godly grief. There's also signs of worldly Grief, there's also signs of worldly grief that we can see. Like, yeah, you feel bad, but you also seem resistant to change. You don't really hate the sin. You just kind of hate the situation that you're in. You hate the situation that the sin got you into, and you want to get out of that situation. But I don't know if you really hate the sin and want to kill the sin. And where godly grief is primarily have this vertical concern with a passion to change, worldly grief primarily has a horizontal concern with a resistant to change. So if you got worldly grief, it's like, hey, you keep looking at things you shouldn't look at at your phone. But anytime somebody suggests that you get rid of your phone, you're like, no, I couldn't do that, right? Or you keep falling into, like, gossip online and social media. But anytime somebody recommends that you get rid of social media, you're like, I could never do that. And you genuinely feel bad about it. I wish I wouldn't have said that. I wish I wouldn't have did that. I'm gonna do better next time. But any kind of practical change you're resistant to. You keep finding yourself spending more money than you have. But anytime somebody says, well, why don't we cut up your credit card? You're like, oh, no, I mean, I couldn't do that. And you genuinely feel bad about it. Like, you genuinely hate that you did it. But is it worldly grief that leads to death, or is it godly grief that leads to life? Like, is there fruit of repentance? And I don't want to, like, overplay my hand, but this is a heaven and hell issue. This isn't about just fixing a situation. This is like, are you on a trajectory of salvation, or are you on a trajectory of eternal regret? But grief, either kind needs to be given. Guilt or shame of either kind is important to have because it exposes, it reveals. Look at verse 12. He says, 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. So who suffered the wrong? In this context? Paul. Paul was wrong it. And he's like, I'm not writing to defend myself here. This isn't about me. And I'm not writing to take shots at the super apostles. It's not even about them. The reason I wrote this letter is for you. This is about you. I called you out. You know why? Because I wanted to expose who you really are. I wanted to display and show who you really are. And this is challenging, but we need to hear. I need to hear bold discipleship is revealing or bold discipleship is a revealer. It's a revealer. Take for example, let's say somebody made a pie and put it on the counter and it's just you and that pie and you're hungry and you're in there, and it's not one of those, like, checkered crust. It's like a full crust. I don't know what that's called, but it's all crust. So you don't know what kind of pie it is. You don't know if it's an apple pie. You don't know if it's a cherry pie. You don't know if it's a chicken pot pie. I mean, you don't know what it is. It's a pie, but you don't know what's in there. What do you have to do to find out? You got to cut into it, right? You got to cut in to see what's inside there. Paul sent this harsh letter, and that's him cutting in. Like, I'm going to cut in and I want to see what's inside. I'm going to challenge you. I'm going to rebuke you. I'm going to call you out, I'm going to step back and I'm going to watch what happens. I'm going to see how you respond. And it's going to be a revealer, guys. Bold discipleship is a revealer. Which means this is hard. Which means. And this is primarily for leaders, but for everybody. Which means if we don't practice bold discipleship and call out sin and press in and rebuke and challenge one another, then we will let non Christian church people, yes, they exist. We will let non Christian church people continue to think they're Christians, lead the church to look more and more like the world. Because that's what was happening in Corinth. You got these super apostles leading the church, and guess what's happening. All kinds of sexual immorality and false teaching. And you're looking more and more like Corinth. And Paul's like, I don't play that game. And he writes this harsh letter. Because when we do practice bold discipleship and call out sin and rebuke one another, we reveal true Christians who grow in their faith and strengthen the church. So the question comes down to what kind of church are we going to be? Are we going to be a church that practices bold discipleship and risk offending people or upsetting people or causing disruption in the peace, or will we avoid ever upsetting anybody and just trying to keep everybody happy? And pretty soon the non Christian church people aren't just at your church, they're in your committees and leading your connection groups and teaching your second graders and leading your students. And in 10 years, we look at our heads up, how did we get here? Because I think we look a lot like the world and not a lot like the kingdom. So what kind of church are we going to be? Paul in his first few verses is saying, I love you, I'm comforted by you, I'm proud of you, I'm overflowing with joy. And then in his last few verses he's saying, I'm comforted by you, I rejoice over you, I'm confident in you. And the reasons expressed in the middle, because I called you to repent and you repented like the genuine Christians I knew you to be. How could Paul have such confidence in them like that? If you go back to Acts 18, when Paul planted the church, it was a hard go in Corinth. And God tells Paul, keep preaching because there's more of my people in this city. Paul knows it. So he knows, like, well, God's people love God's truth. So if I keep preaching God's truth, God's people are going to receive it and it's going to be a revealer. And I know that God's people are in this city because God told me to. So when I preach God's truth, it's a revealer of who God's people are. But that doesn't make it easy. See, Paul is rejoicing over the Corinthians because his call for their repentance led to their repentance. And listen, church, there is deep joy. There is deep joy for us to discover that is attained through bold discipleship and godly grief. Like when we do the things the New Testament calls us to do, to challenge one another and rebuke one another and admonish one another and correct one another and stir up one another to love and good deeds, like to care for one another's godliness, to not put your head down and I'll put my head down and you don't talk to me about my problems. And I won't talk to you about your problems. Let's just all pretend everything's okay and like, no, that's not New Testament church. Like, get involved in each other's lives and fight for Your godliness. And when we do, that leads somewhere that leads to greater joy because it leads to greater godliness. We're refined by each other as one man sharpens another, like we're going to sharpen each other to be conformed to the image of Christ. And when we reflect Jesus better, that's better for all of us. That's a deeper joy to experience. That's a dangerous vision to press into one another like that, to get all up in each other's business, to challenge each other, to rebuke each other. That's scary. What if that doesn't go well? I mean, what if they get mad? What if they get upset? What if they leave? What if they post nasty comments online? Nobody wants that. But you know what's scarier? If we don't. Let's be people who cause and display godly grief. Let's be people who both cause and display godly grief. Because there's something in this text where we can learn from Paul, and there's something in this text that we can learn from the Corinthians. Paul caused them to feel guilty and ashamed for the sake of their repentance. He said hard things. The Corinthians heard and received hard things and repented. And there's going to be a time in your Christian life where you need to do both of them. There's going to be seasons where you're the one that has to say hard things, and there's going to be seasons where you're the one that has to hear hard things. I can tell you by experience, like, none of us are exempt from that. There's going to be times where it's like, all right, I got to lead out in this difficult conversation. And there's going to be times like, I need to listen to this difficult conversation. That's part of being shaped. That's part of being shaped by God in God's community. It's such a gift and a blessing with godly grief, not with worldly grief. And here's something that the Corinthians don't do that we can learn from. They don't receive Paul's harsh letter, which is what is referred to, and be like, I don't think I like your tone, Paul. I don't like the way you're talking about this, Right? In fact, I don't want to talk about my sin. I want to talk about the way you're talking about my sin. Right? Let's forget what I did that made me lose my job. I want to talk about the way you're talking about it. Deflection. Deflection, Deflection. Right, like you're not being very godly. Paul, aren't you supposed to restore a brother in gentleness? Yeah, restore a brother, but not expose a brother in gentleness. Like he's using bold words. He said, I didn't enjoy this, but I'll do it if it leads to your repentance. We need to be people who both cause and display godly grief. Paul said hard things, man. He said hard things. But here's where it's a win, win. Now, this isn't popular to say, but this is where it's like a win, win when you say hard things. Hard, true things from a place of love. If it's worldly grief, well, then let's expose it and get rid of it. But if it's godly grief, then that leads somewhere that produces something that shows up in repentance and leads to no regrets. Isn't that where we want to go? Here's what I want you to remember. People who are willing to cause and display godly grief find deep joy. You're not going to find deep joy in pretending everything is okay or taking a posture of, you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone. Stay out of my business, I'll stay out of your business. That doesn't lead to joy, leads to pretending and projecting. But deep joy is found with people who are willing to cause and display godly grief. And I get it. It's weird to put those things together. Shame and joy, guilt and joy. But I'm telling you, there is a grief, there's a guilt, there's a shame. For the right reasons, it's a good thing. And it causes rejoicing. It reminds me of the Book of Nehemiah. So in the book of Nehemiah, Israelites are in captivity. They get permission to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. So there's a construction program going on, construction project. And in this construction project, they discover the Book of the Law. They haven't read it in a long time. They discovered this, and it was read to them. And when it was read to them, they discover, we're not doing this. We have not been obedient to God. And they're full of grief. In fact, they rip their clothes. They wail and mourn. They're upset, they feel terrible. And you know what happens? Nehemiah, chapter 8. The leaders say, stop crying. This is a blessed day. This is awesome. Rejoice. Eat the fat portions. Drink some Wine. Let's party. You're like, wait, what? How did that happen? What's going on here? Oh, this is awesome. We love it that you feel bad. This is a good day that you feel bad. We're rejoicing over the fact that you feel bad. You know why you should feel bad, and we love that you do feel bad. So we feel good about you feeling bad. Let's have a feast. You're like, how does that. How does that work? Why can we feel good about feeling bad? Because let me tell you, I hope you feel bad about your sin. Like, I hope you're torn up about it. I hope you have an indignation against it. I hope you have a hatred towards it. I hope you're willing to just kill it. Do whatever is necessary. I hope you have a zeal to be different. Like, I hope you feel terrible about your sin. But why can we feel good about feeling bad? It's the grace of God. Paul is boldly calling them to repent because repentance is possible, and repentance is possible because of grace. We were just there in chapter five, that in Christ Jesus, God is not counting our trespasses against us. Wait, what? Do you get that? So it's the ministry of what? Reconciliation? Because of Christ Jesus, repentance is possible. You have that option. You have the option as a sinner to turn back to God and to be received by grace. You know how awesome that is? That's incredible. Guys. Godly grief is good because of God's mercy that in Christ Jesus, your sins will not be counted against you, and you will give him the righteousness of Christ. You can turn to him. Repentance is an option you have. It's an offer on the table that won't be on the table forever. And Paul's saying, repent. Yeah, I made you feel bad. I'm glad I did it because it led to your repentance. And your repentance leads you back to God. And God is where you find joy. That's the kind of church we want to be. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you break our hearts, that you lead us to stop playing around with momentary happiness, temporary comfort, a projection, like we have it all together and we would chase hard after you, give us a hatred towards our sin, that we would run from it to you, knowing that with you, our pleasures forevermore and the fullness of joy. Father, in these next minutes, I pray that we would search our own hearts, that we would examine ourselves and see our own sin, and we would feel awful about it. Awful about it in a way that leads to change that bears the fruit of repentance. We need you to want you so I pray that you would do that. Work among us. Pray this in your name. Amen.