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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. The second service was the second service. Today, my friend is the second service. The second service is hym number 419. Hym number 419. 419. Sound the battle cry. Sound the battle cry. Sound the power of Christ in the first time. Sound the power of Christ in the first time. Sound the power of Christ in the first time. Praise the Son of God for heaven. The Lord of the realms, the Word of the Lord, was born, awesome God. He's where we were, house and soul. I walk the banner, ready, steady, as the Word of God. I'm one for one, child of the seven. Christ is coming up from high, He pulls us ahead, come to the home. Our King, oh, we know, what a warm God, sweet old God's breathing. She loves my brother God, we believe in God. I'm one for your life, you and me. Christ is coming up from high, as the Word of God. Ready, steady, as the Word of God. I'm one for one, child of the seven. Christ is coming up from high, He pulls us ahead, come to the home. I'm one for your life, you and me. Christ is coming up from high, as the Word of God. I'm one for your life, you and me. I'm one for your life, you and me. Christ is coming up from high, as the Word of God. I'm one for your life, you and me. Christ is coming up from high, as the Word of God. I'm one for your life, you and me. Christ is coming up from high, He pulls us ahead, come to the home. I'm one or your life, you and me. Christ is coming up from high, I'm one for your life, He pulls us ahead. I'm one for your life, He pulls us ahead. Christ is coming up from high, as the Word of God. I'm one for your life, you and me. I'm one for your life, Number 166, hymn number 166, hymn number 166, I will praise him. First stanza, puta yunga, last stanza. When I saw the glancing fountain, first stanza, ready, sing. When I saw the glancing fountain, oh, what joy I see. I will give a spirit through, when he said the valley he was. I will praise him, I will praise him, way so that we'll see him stay. Even for the only people, who must let him wash away his sin. Oh, no waste, he's taken care of, all that life has left to be. I will praise him, I will praise him, way so that we'll see him stay. I will praise him, I will praise him, way so that we'll see him stay. Even for the only people, who must let him wash away his sin. Oh, no waste, he's taken care of, all that life has left to be. I will praise him, I will praise him, way so that we'll see him stay. I will praise him, I will praise him, way so that we'll see him stay. Even for the only people, who must let him wash away his sin. As it be the name of Jesus, Lord, you've done it to me. He's given me the treasure, yes, but my heart falls deep. I will praise him, I will praise him, way so that we'll see him stay. Even for the only people, who must let him wash away his sin. Oh, we pray to the Father, oh, we pray to the Son, Oh, we pray to the Spirit, oh, we pray to the Holy Spirit, I will praise him, I will praise him, way so that we'll see him stay. Even for the only people, who must let him wash away his sin. All right, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bullets and we'll go through a couple things quickly. First, let's count up any salvations that we had from this past week. Does anybody have any salvations to report? Anybody? Three? All right, anybody else? Four? Two? All right, 342 so far. All right, can we get to the thousands here? Anybody else? All right, great job everybody. So that's nine extra salvations, and you know hopefully we'll have a fair weather for soul winning later today. I guess the only other thing is, we have our prayer meeting in two weeks from now, and so we'll have Raffi lead us in another song at this time. Amen. Hymn number 389, bring them peace. Hymn number 389, bring them peace. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring them peace from the fields of sin. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring the one he loves to choose. Through the weather he will share with mine. There'll be no one he wants to find. There'll be no one he wants to find. There'll be no one he wants to find. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring them peace from the fields of sin. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring the one who wants to be my last one. How can I dance with fear and pride? How can the mountains dwell at night? Heart is the master's place to be. You'll find you'll shape your enemies. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring them peace from the fields of sin. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring the one who wants to be Jesus. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Bring them peace, bring them peace. Amen. For a scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. We have John, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians. And as our custom, we will be reading the entire chapter. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Please say amen if you're there. Amen. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, that has cleansed ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness and the fear of God, receive us, we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. I speak not this to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die and live with you. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you. I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. For when we were coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled in every side, without our fightings, within our fears. Nevertheless, God that comforted those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me, so that I rejoice the more. For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed repentance, for you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what leering of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vain desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge, and all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this manner. Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that hath done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you. Therefore we were comforted in your comfort, yea, and exceedingly the more joy it be for the joy of Titus, because the Spirit was refreshed by you all. For if I have boasted anything to him of you, I am not ashamed, but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth, and his inward affection is more abundant toward you, who also remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye receive him. I rejoice, therefore, that I have confidence in you in all things. Blessed be we of God's word, let us pray. Our God and Heaven, we thank you Lord for your state's given to us, and for those who are blessed of this day. Give us good weather for our soul winning later on, and I pray that you would also bless the Preacher, and the Preacher of your word, Lord, this day. We love you, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, we're here in 2 Corinthians 7, and the name of the sermon is, Seven Signs of Genuine Repentance. Seven Signs of Genuine Repentance. Now, obviously this word, repent, or repentance, if you've been familiar with our church, and soul winning, and things such as that, obviously this is a very controversial word in today's world, and basically, you know, when it comes to repentance, you know, there's kind of a couple ways to look at this. One is before somebody's saved in terms of salvation, and one is after they're saved, okay? Now when it comes to being saved, of course we know this, it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So when it comes to getting saved, it's just by believing. And so when it talks about repentance in terms of salvation, what that means is you can't still believe in Islam, and believe in Christ at the same time. You can't believe in Mary and Christ at the same time for salvation, right? You've got to change what you believe. You've got to repent of your belief, and put your belief on Jesus Christ. So in terms of salvation, with repentance, you change your mind about what you believe, and then you believe on Christ. You can't put all of your trust on Jesus if you're also trusting something else as well, okay? But here's the thing. The word repent is actually an important word for us that are saved, because what repent means is to change. Well, it could be change a number of things. It could be for salvation, change your belief. But somebody could repent of their sin, meaning they change their mind about their sin, and they get their sin out of their life. That has nothing to do with getting saved. However, as saved people, we should be repenting of our sin on a daily basis. We should be turning from our sin on a daily basis. Once again, that has nothing to do with being saved or staying saved, but it's about being right with God, okay? When I'm saying seven signs of genuine repentance, a lot of Baptists would hear this title and say, all right, seven signs that you're really saved. That's not what I'm preaching about. I'm talking about seven signs of a saved person actually getting right with God. And actually, you can apply these seven signs to even an unsaved person, raising a child. Seven signs that your child actually has godly sorrow, actually has repented of that sin. So these are things that we can learn. But let us get the context in verse number eight. And the Bible says, For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. And what Paul says is, you know what, I wrote a letter to you, which is 1 Corinthians as we know it, and he said, you know what, I don't repent. I don't change my mind about writing that letter, though I did repent. What he's saying is, now, I don't change my mind. I'm glad I wrote the letter. I made the right choice. But you know what, I did repent. At first, I was kind of like, I don't know if I'm making the right decision. I don't want to have to rebuke them. But he said, you know what, I don't change my mind now. I realize I made the right choice. Now, right off the bat, we know the word repent is not always in reference to salvation because Paul's already saved. It mentions him repenting. It's like, obviously, him writing that letter has nothing to do with his personal salvation. He was already saved. But then it says this, For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Perceive is like having perception about something. And what Paul can tell is, I can perceive that you were made sorry by that letter I wrote, but it was for a season. For a time period, you felt bad about that letter that I wrote. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. And Paul says, in the present tense, I don't repent. I rejoice. I'm glad. But I'm not glad that you became sorry. It's like, if I preach a sermon and somebody cries, that doesn't make me happy. In fact, that's one of the most distracting things is when you see somebody crying because of what you're saying. As you preach sermons. And it's just like, Paul's like, I'm not happy that I make people feel miserable. It's not like I want people to feel terrible, but I'm happy because ye sorrowed to a change, to repentance. And he said, as a church, I preached against your sin, and you know what? The church got it right. They got rid of the sin. They got rid of the problem. I'm glad because you had a godly sorrow that resulted in a change, okay? Then it says, for ye are made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. And what the Bible's going to speak about is a godly manner and a worldly manner. And he says, ye might receive damage by us in nothing. Remember last week I talked about surgery, and I talked about how if the surgery fails, it's better off not having the surgery, right? I should have used this verse. This is a great verse for this. Because what Paul says is, you know what? You heard my message, and you're not going to get any damage. Why? Because you actually applied it. But what he's implying is, if I had written that letter and you didn't fix the problem, now all of a sudden God's going to be really mad at you because of the fact you heard the truth, and yet you rejected it. And you would get damaged because here's the thing. God holds you accountable to what you hear. So basically, if you hear the truth and you don't do it, then God's going to hold you accountable for that because you knew what the Bible said. You knew what the truth was. And he said, you know what? Because you had an actual change, you're not going to receive any damage. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Now, whenever people talk about salvation and repentance that preach a false gospel, they love verse 10, and they just kind of read that and take it out of its context. If this verse was all the passage said, then yeah, they'd have a point. But you have to look at the context of this. Number one, he's writing to a church of saved people. The Word of God's written to save people. It would make no sense for me to say, you know what? I'm mad about the sin over there. I'm going to write a letter to get them to get right with God. First they need to believe. Why would you write a letter to unsaved people? It wouldn't make any sense. You know, what you do is preach the gospel to them. And so he's writing to a church of saved people with a lot of sin, okay? And so it's not an individual thing. It's as a church to begin with, but they're already saved. So if you want to apply it individually, it's a saved group of people, right? They're saved, so obviously their repenting is not to get saved. And us, we should have repentance in our lives, but here's the thing. I already believe on Jesus, and as I said, when you put your faith on Jesus, you will always believe in Jesus. I don't have to ever change my mind about what I believe about salvation anymore. When you do that, that is an eternal or everlasting decision you make. It's never going to end, and you're indwelled with the spirit of truth, okay? But when it comes to sin, all of us struggle with sin because we have the same flesh. So we should repent of our sin on a normal basis. You say, why does it say, worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of? Well, I mean, remember he talked about receiving damage if you don't apply what's said. Imagine a drug addict or a drunk who's just drinking their life away, okay? They're destroying their bodies. They're destroying their lives. They're destroying their marriages. They're destroying their parenting. They're destroying their jobs. They're destroying their finances. Everything's being destroyed. But, you know, if they hear a sermon against alcohol and they get rid of the alcohol, you know what, that is going to save them from a lot of problems in their lives. The word salvation is not always in reference to spiritual salvation. Many times it's in reference to death, life and death physically. Many times it's in reference to being saved in various different areas. And as a church, they were saved from having their candlestick removed. As individuals, you're saved by your lives not getting destroyed because you get right with God. When you apply God's word, it will save you from destroying your life. And that is what godly sorrow results in. It results in a real change. It says not to be repented of in verse 10, meaning godly sorrow is you make a change and you don't go back to it. Right? When people come down to an altar call at Baptist churches, they get right with God about their sin and then they're praying about the same sin the next week. That's not godly sorrow. You say, why? Not to be repented of, meaning that you don't go back and forth on it. Right? It means you make a change and it's a lasting change. You have real godly sorrow not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. What the Bible's saying is there's two types of sorrow. Every single person is going to feel bad or feel sorry when they get in trouble. Everybody. Regardless of who they are. One of the great examples is the famous serial killer in the U.S., Jeffrey Dahmer, probably the most famous serial killer along with Ted Bundy in American history. When he got captured, he screamed out the words, I can't believe I did this. It's terrible. God's judgment is going to be upon me. Do you really believe that he was sorry for what he did? No, he's sorry he's got caught and he was prepared of what to say when he did get caught, and yet he got beaten to death in prison by another inmate because he was bragging about being a pedophile. Well, it doesn't really sound like he repented of his sin, does it? It doesn't really sound like he had godly sorrow. What did he have? Well, he didn't want to get caught. He had worldly sorrow. He wasn't glad he got arrested. He was sorry, but it was worldly sorrow. You know, many times you'll look at celebrities and they get in trouble for something and they make a statement about how, I'm so sorry. Many times, athletes. They said something like 20 years ago, but now on social media, it's like, when you were six years old, you said this about homosexuals. It's like, I'm so sorry I did that, blah, blah, blah, or whatever. But you have celebrities or athletes and they pull up statements, and then people always try to judge how sorry they are. Isn't that what they do? They're like, do they seem sincere? Well, here's the problem with that. You can't really tell whether or not somebody's sincere. People can do a good job acting. Now, you can tell sometimes when someone's obviously lying. Sometimes it's very obvious. But sometimes people can do a good job faking it. You say, well, how do you know whether or not they're really sorry? Well, you look at the seven attributes that we're going to look at to find out, do they have godly sorrow? You can't just say, well, they said they're sorry. Well, we don't know whether it's sincere or not. You have to actually be able to tell whether or not it's sincere. The Bible doesn't leave us in the dark. What the Bible says is, I'm going to give you seven attributes of actually godly sorrow. You can actually look at these things, and what happens is, if somebody gets in trouble for something they do, it's like, okay, you say you're really sorry. There's the benefit of the doubt, but now let's see whether or not these attributes manifest in the next couple months. Because if they don't, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. You can't just trust words. Don't we always say that actions speak louder than words? Well, you know what? There's a lot of truth to that biblically. Because the Bible says that someone can say they're sorry all day long, but what about their actions? Does that really back up the words that they're actually saying? Verse number 11. For behold, this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you. Number one is carefulness. Number one is carefulness. What does it mean, carefulness? It means the quality of giving a lot of attention to what you are doing so that you do not have an accident, make a mistake, or damage something, by definition. And when we say careful, think about if there is broken glass up here at the front. Let's say you're up here and, you know, we have, you know, a guest preacher, and I put all this broken glass up here. And so basically as you're preaching, you're going to be watching where you go, or you're just going to be kind of holding on here for dear life and not moving because you're afraid to actually step in the glass, right? Matt, when we go soul winning, we go soul winning in some dirty neighborhoods. We're careful, or you should be, where you step, right? Because you don't want to step in something, obviously, right? Well, what the Bible's stating is someone who has godly sorrow about a sin, they're going to be very, very careful. Careful about what? Careful not to commit that same sin. It's like, man, I really don't want to do this. It's like, what a terrible sin. I got called out. I have godly sorrow. I want to get it right. I'm going to be careful to make sure it never happens again. Well, what does that mean? Well, it means you're probably going to make some changes to make sure you don't even have the opportunity to commit that sin because you're very careful not to commit that sin. You don't want to do it, right? Now, turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. And what that might mean, you might have to go to some extremes, right? I mean, if you have addictions or sins that you cannot get rid of, you're going to have to figure it out. You might have to go to extremes. I've never had this situation before, but if somebody ever came to me and told me that they were struggling with pornography, I would tell them, get rid of your computer and your smartphone. That's what I would say. But it's so hard to live without a computer. Well, figure it out. Because if you can't get rid of the sin, you've got to be very careful not to commit that sin. Now, here's the thing. If you're not struggling, you don't need to get rid of your computer. If you're not struggling with that, you don't need to get rid of your smartphone. But if you are and you can't get rid of that, yeah, you need to do that. So look, if you struggle with a particular sin, you will probably need to go to bigger extremes to avoid it than the average person. Why? They don't struggle with it. I don't struggle with drinking. I don't struggle with smoking cigarettes. For me, if I walk by a 7-Eleven, I'm not like, alcohol, alcohol, I need you. But the truth is that if people have that background, that could be something they really struggle with. And I'm not trying to make you feel bad by using an example or making a bit of a joke or whatever. I'm being honest that when people have an addiction, it's like they cannot stop it. I mean, they've got to figure out going to extremes. It might mean when you go out and about, you only have enough money to ride a gypney and no other money. Because, man, if I have extra money in my pocket, I always end up getting some beer. Just bring enough money for a gypney. Right? I mean, do what you have to do, because if you struggle with an addiction, until you can kick that addiction, you've got to go to extremes to make sure that you're not going to do it. You're very careful if you have godly sorrow. Go to 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12. And it says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Now, on a basic sense, all of us should take heed in all areas of our life, and we understand that. But here's the thing about this. If you've particularly struggled with a vice in your life, then you need to take extra care to make sure that it doesn't pop up again. All of us should take caution, but especially if you've struggled with something, take heed lest he fall. What that might mean is if you've had addictions in the past and you get rid of them, well, a year later, you ought to still remember, you know what, that's still something in my flesh. I need to make sure I just keep living a lifestyle where I avoid the possibility of doing that. People that are addicted to gambling, I mean, people get addicted to gambling, they gamble away all of their money. There's stories you read about people in Las Vegas in the US, and they will literally just spend like $50,000 in a day. Stories about a husband would come home and basically tell his wife, it's like we're bankrupt. It's like they had a nice house and cars and everything, just spent all of the money because they lost a little bit. They kept going more and more, and this addiction just kind of took hold of them. Or they were just spending some of their money every week to just do it on sports or horses or whatever the betting is, and they just lost all their money. Well, I mean, if you're that sort of person that has struggled with gambling, you've got to make sure you don't put yourself in that situation. Don't give yourself an opportunity. Now, here's the thing. I don't gamble. It's not a struggle for me. So I don't need to be as strict about it, but if you do struggle in a certain area, and look, we all have areas that we're not the strongest at, that we're weak at, areas where we need to make changes. Well, you need to make sure you don't put yourself in a position where you can actually commit. Make no provision for the flesh, the Bible says. Turn back to 1 Corinthians 10. Or actually, I mean, 2 Corinthians 7, sorry, 2 Corinthians 7. You say, Brother Stuckey, isn't that pretty extreme? I mean, this is what I've heard, and we really haven't had a whole lot of meetings. We've had some here before, but other pastors I know that have had meetings and counseling where people are trying to overcome vices and stuff like that, what they'll say is that when somebody comes to them and they say, I've got this sin, I've got this problem, I need help, and then the pastor says, well, this is what you need to do, and they're like, oh, I can't do that, though, and they start making excuses. They don't want to make any changes. It's because you don't have godly sorrow, because if you have godly sorrow, then you're going to be willing to go to extremes. Why? Because the Bible says you're going to be careful, and if you're careful, you're taking extra precaution. Now, look, in our lives, we ought to be careful in general, but if you have godly sorrow, you're going to be extra, where you're very, very cautious. I've got to make sure I don't commit this sin. It might mean I make some changes in my life, and if you're unwilling to make any changes, it's like, well, you're not really being very careful. It's because you don't really have godly sorrow. That's the truth, right? I don't really understand why people would come to get advice, and then they just don't plan to take the advice, but that happens all the time in churches where people say, hey, can you give me advice? You give advice, and they don't take it. It's like, why'd you ask for my advice, right? And what's interesting about this is there's seven attributes of basically godly sorrow. However, what I realized is there's actually seven attributes of worldly sorrow also, because in all seven of these things, you can give a counterpart on the other side. I mean, if you have godly sorrow, you're careful not to commit the sin. You don't want to commit the sin. You want to get it out of your life. What about if you have worldly sorrow? You're careful not to get caught committing the sin. It's like, hey, I'm still planning to do the sin, but I don't want to get caught doing the sin. Why? Well, nobody wants to get caught. Nobody wants to get in trouble. And if you have worldly sorrow, it's kind of like, okay, I'm going to make sure I don't get caught again, right? But godly sorrow, you're careful not to commit the sin. If you get the sin, worldly sorrow, you're careful not to get caught committing the sin. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 11. For behold, the self, same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you. Paul's saying, hey, you know what? I noticed that you are very careful not to allow that sin again. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. What does it mean, clearing of yourself? Go to Exodus 34. Exodus 34. And what clearing of yourself basically means, I'll give you just one verse to give you the definition, but what it basically means is a desire to have a reputation of innocence. You want to clear your name from any wrongdoing. And if there is a major sin, look, someone who's right with God doesn't want to be associated with sin. I would be very upset if there's a rumor that, I heard Brother Stuckey's a drunk. I don't want to be associated with alcohol. I don't drink alcohol, but I also don't want to be associated with it. It's like, I don't do that in my life, but I also don't want to have my name defiled by that sin. And if you're right with God, you don't want to be attached to sin. You want to clear yourself. And it says here in Exodus 34 verse 7, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. So think of somebody in a courtroom where basically they're accused of a crime, and let's say that they're innocent, but they're basically on trial for this crime. Well, they're being associated with that crime or that sin, even if they're innocent. And their name is being defiled, even if they're innocent. Somebody can start a rumor about you and just say something, and it's just like, even if you're innocent about it, it makes you look bad, even if it's not true. Well, if you're right with God and you have godly sorrow, you're going to want to clear your name. You don't want to be associated with that sin. Now go to Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22. In Proverbs 22 verse 1, notice what the Bible says. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches in loving favor rather than silver and gold. The Bible speaks about a good name, and what that's basically referring to is a good reputation, a strong reputation. The Bible says we should seek to be blameless. We should seek to be above reproach. That doesn't mean that you're without sin. That means that you don't have something that people can really look at and be like, hey, that person, they love soul winning, but they do this. It's like you ought to live your life in a way where you're blameless. You need to have a good name, a good reputation. It's a very, very important thing. We should live our lives in a way where people cannot accuse us of anything. Turn in your Bible to 1 Samuel 15. But when it comes to worldly sorrow, they don't want to look bad in the sight of man, but it's not like they're embarrassed to be associated with the sin because they like that sin. They're not against that sin. Somebody who's a drunk who basically gets called out on is like, yeah, yeah, I know I need to make changes or whatever. And look, they want to clear themselves from being criticized by man, but they have no problem being associated with the alcohol because they have worldly sorrow. But someone with godly sorrow says, you know what, not only am I careful not to commit the sin, I want to clear my name from that sin. I don't want to be associated with it. And look, if that's something that you struggled with in the past and you come out of it, then you know what, you're going to want to clear that and say, hey, I'm a new man. I'm a changed person. I've gone through the steps to ensure I never commit that sin again. It's like, I've been clean for ten years. And isn't that what people say? I've been clean. They've been clean and then you're basically able to clear your name because you've been clean for a while and it's like the proof is in the pudding. I'm not doing anything that would cause me to question whether or not I'm committing that sin or not. It says in 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel 15 verse 24. And I don't have time to go into the whole story, but this is one of the examples of Saul getting rebuked by Samuel. And basically he gets rebuked by Samuel and he makes excuses. Right? He doesn't admit that he's wrong. And what I've found from experience is that when people have worldly sorrow, you can boil it down to two reactions. One reaction is they make excuses and justify their actions. They give a fake apology, but they're actually justifying their actions. And basically saying, well, you know, maybe I should have done this, but... You know, and it's like they're not really sorry. The other thing I've seen is that they'll just openly say I'm sorry and act sincere, but they're not. Okay? Both of these things occur. Here in 1 Samuel 15, Saul is fitting under the category of the person just justifying their actions. They're saying, I didn't do anything wrong. Like, what are you saying I did something wrong? Well, notice what it says in verse 24. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned. Well, it's about time you admitted that you were sinned when you've been told several times, Saul. He gets told several times, he finally says, I have sinned. For I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. You say, Brother Stuckey, he said he was sorry. I think we ought to give him another chance. You would make a terrible judge in real life. Imagine being a judge where as long as people said they're sorry, it's like, oh, you committed murder, you admitted it, you're sorry? Innocent. The devil lets you go. Does that make any sense? And somehow people think in the house of God this is the way you're supposed to operate if you're judging a case or a situation. It's just like, hey, if they say they're sorry no matter what, just let them go. But does that make any sense? You would never do that in a courtroom. If somebody's on trial for something, hey, you know what, they might be sincere and they're sorry, but that doesn't change the fact, well, there could be a punishment for it. And here's the thing, they might just not be sincere in saying they're sorry. I mean, do you realize how high of a percentage of serial killers on trial become a born-again Christian? It's so often. They always end up getting saved when they're basically worried about getting the death penalty. It's like, man, I just became a born-again Christian. I can't believe I committed that sin 57 times. And it's just like I wonder why they all of a sudden just became a born-again Christian. It's like I'm a new man, right? It's because they want to put out that sorry and then a lot of people are just like, well, let's just give them another chance. They said they're sorry, they seem like they're sincere, let's just give them another chance. Look, you have to look at the attributes over time to see whether or not it's sincere or not. That's what the Bible says. But Saul says he's sorry even though he just made excuses. Let me help you out with something in case you're ever in a situation to judge someone. If they make a bunch of excuses and then you finally get them to admit that they're sorry, they're not sorry. Because they wouldn't have made excuses to begin with. If they make a bunch of excuses at the beginning and say, but, but, but, and then say, okay, I've sinned. Okay, they're saying they're sinning, but they don't actually mean it. They're just saying that from my experience and from this story as well. You say, well, how do you know Saul was not sincere? Well, you just keep reading. Verse 26, and Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee to this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. Now remember, Saul finally admitted he sinned. And here's the thing, if he really wants to clear himself, he would be like, you know what, I should have never done this sin. It's an embarrassment. I'm sorry. It will never happen again. It was a horrible sin. But out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, because notice what it says in verse 30. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel. You know what Saul is admitting? I don't want to look bad in front of other people. You're making me look bad right now, Samuel. You're rebuking me and other people. Can you honor me in front of the other people? Why? Because he's trying to clear himself in a worldly style. Basically, I don't like looking bad in front of other people. But he had no problem with the sin. He justified it. I mean, Samuel's like, thus saith the Lord, but I did obey the voice of the Lord. You're not sorry about your sin. You don't have godly sorrow. You're trying to justify yourself. But you don't want to look bad in the eyes of man. But you have no problem with the sin. I mean, do you see that? You cannot just, because look, I'm afraid that many people in today's world, if they had this conversation with Saul, even though Saul made all these excuses, they would be like, he does seem sincere. It's like, he just made all these excuses. And he doesn't intentionally do it, but you can tell out of his heart, the reason why he's finally saying that is, I'm looking bad in front of other people. And he doesn't want to look bad in front of other people. Turn to 2 Corinthians 7. Turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God. No, you just want to still be the king. You just still want to be the ruler. You just don't want to look bad in front of other people. Here's the truth. If his heart was right, this is what Saul's reaction would be. He'd be like, you know what? That's the judgment of the Lord. I committed a terrible sin. If you're removing me from being the king, I will accept that judgment, and I'm going to keep on serving God and being a blessing to the next ruler. That's what you'd say if you had the right reaction. I mean, if you get rebuked by, and here's the thing, realize that back then, I mean, it's directly from a prophet that you know is coming from God and speaking from God, and you get rebuked. It's like the words of God coming to you. If he had the right heart, he'd say, you know what? If that's God's judgment, so be it. It's like, I'll still go on serving God and be a good person. I messed up. I sinned. I don't deserve this position, if his heart was right. That's not his reaction, though. Number one, we saw what carefulness it wrought in you. Then it says, yea, what clearing of yourselves. Now, let me just go on a bit of a rabbit trail, and I just want to help you understand this in general. It's not fully attached to this sermon, but I want you to realize that, as I said earlier, people can just throw out false accusations about people. You don't know whether it's true or not. Anyway, in our church, you know, there's been stupid accusations thrown out by people that have been kicked out of our church before. You know, a long time ago, a couple years ago, somebody spread a rumor at our church that somebody believed in the flat earth. And it was a lie. They didn't believe in the flat earth. It's like, well, why are you throwing out an accusation saying someone believes in a flat earth? And as I've said before, I don't really care. If you think the earth is shaped like a pyramid, go for it. It doesn't bug me. However, if you tell people Brother Sucky believes in a flat earth, it makes me look stupid. Okay? So it's like, I don't really care if you believe whatever about whatever video you saw on YouTube. It doesn't really matter to me. But here's the thing. Why are you throwing out an accusation that's not true? There have been many times accusations have been thrown out, and they turned out not to be true. And it's like, oh, I guess I was wrong. It's like, wait a minute. You caused a big problem. Now it's your job to clear the reputation of that person that you destroyed. And even more serious accusations, somebody threw out an allegation of somebody at our church. They said they are living in open adultery, and it's not true. And it never was true. And they just said it. Now, that person has since been kicked out of our church long before I knew that, but it's just like, why would you spread a false rumor like that? And it's like, you've got to be very careful. I'm just trying to help you out because, you know, you're going to hear things sometimes. Unless you can verify it, you don't know if it's true. People say things and we naturally believe them. You don't know whether it's true or not. And look, I get it. We naturally tend to believe the things that we hear. You have to realize, sometimes people are lying. And if somebody tells you something and you just heard it and you can't verify it, you don't know if it's true. And your first reaction should be like, why are they gossiping to me about this? Whether it's true or not, you're in sin for gossiping and spreading something. And it's like, I don't even know if it's true. When I was at my old church in West Virginia, I had an example of this where somebody at the church told me, just kind of in passing, that so-and-so cheated on his wife. And it was something that had happened like 15 years in the past. To this day, I don't know whether it's true or not. I have no idea. It's just something that somebody told me. And I was mad at that person. I was like, why did you tell me that? Because I was relatively new to the church. I'd been there six months. They're like, oh, well, everybody knows that. It's like, well, I didn't. I was like, I happen to like that person. I had no idea about it. Whether it's true or not, oh, it is true, what she told me. It's like, I was like, whether it's true or not, she's like, oh, it is true. He did commit adultery. I'm just like, why did you tell me that? It's just like, why are you bringing up their sin from 15 years in the past? To this day, I don't know whether it's true or not. And unfortunately, we tend to naturally believe stuff. So yeah, if I had to make a bet, you know, you assume the person was probably telling the truth. But it's like, why are you telling me that? What I'm saying is, you know, you've got to be very careful when someone tells you something. You don't know whether or not it's true. Okay? And, anyways, where are we? 2 Corinthians 7. And we said, what carefulness wrought in you? If you have godly sorrow, you're going to be careful not to commit the sin. If you have godly sorrow, you're going to be clearing of yourselves. Basically, where you want to clear your name or reputation from that sin, you don't want to be associated. Then it says, yea, what indignation. Yea, what indignation. Someone with godly sorrow. And you say, what is indignation? Indignation is like extreme anger. You're indignant, you're angry, you're very mad about something. Someone with godly sorrow becomes very angry. About what? Or to who? They're angry with themselves. Somebody who has godly sorrow, when they commit a sin or they do wrong or they're trying to... They are mad at themselves because they screwed up. With godly sorrow. How about with worldly sorrow? You're angry with the person who got you in trouble. But, see, if you have godly sorrow, you're mad at yourself. And isn't that the way you feel sometimes? You know, when you do something wrong, you have an area that's not right in your life. It's like, what is wrong with me? Why can't I get this area right in my life? It's like I know the truth, and yet I keep doing wrong, and you're mad at yourself. And, look, if you have the right attitude, if you are guilty of something and you're trying to get it right, you're going to be mad at yourself. Not mad at somebody else, not blaming somebody else, but mad at yourself. Turn your Bible to Matthew 20. Matthew 20. When I played soccer, I didn't get a lot of cards. I never got red card in my life, but I got a couple yellow cards in my life. Both of my yellow cards were for hard tackles, just playing the game. Sometimes you tackle hard, and I got yellow carded. I didn't even think I deserved one of them. The other one, I did a pretty bad tackle. I mean, I took them out, missed the ball. It's like I deserved the yellow card. But I never got carded because I lost my temper. Because most times when you get cards, you lose your temper, and then you just kind of quickly elbow someone in the face or something like that. Or there's the famous Zinedine Zidane, like the headbutt where he knocks him over or whatever, if you know what I'm talking about. But it's like when I played soccer, though, I never got mad at other people, but I got mad a lot when I played soccer. Say, who did you get mad at? I got mad at myself because it was a game I was very passionate about. And it's like when I messed up, when I made a bad pass, I was angry. But I wasn't angry at somebody else. I was mad at myself. Just think about somebody gives you a pass in, let's say, basketball and you miss the layup. Well, you should be angry at yourself for missing the layup. When I play basketball or when I play basketball, if I miss a layup, I'm mad. Well, let's say somebody gives you a pass, and it's not the best pass in the world, but you've still got a basically open hoop. You should be angry at yourself, not angry at the person who didn't give the best pass because you were still like a foot away from the rim. It's like if you played basketball, you should be able to make that. Get mad at yourself. When it comes to sin, you should be mad at yourself if you're guilty of something, even if somebody else is partially to blame. But what's worldly sorrow? Well, worldly sorrow is Adam, where Adam's like, well, I mean, the wife that you gave me gave me the fruit. Is that true? Well, that's true. But who should you be mad about if you have godly sorrow? You should be mad at yourself, Adam, because you didn't have to eat that fruit. What's worldly sorrow? Well, the serpent beguiled me. It's like, just pass the blame around. It's like, but here's the thing, is that true? Well, yeah, that's true, but here's the thing. Even if you're only partially to blame in a situation, the part you are to blame, you ought to take basically and say, hey, you know what, I was wrong. I messed up. I'm not blaming anybody else. I'm blaming myself. David's a great example in the Bible of getting right with God after a major sin. And you know what? He does not say to Nathan, but you know what? Bathsheba, you know, she provoked me. She was dressed wrong. She was showering, and I saw her. No, no, he just said, I have sinned. He doesn't make excuses. Even if he's not the only one who is to blame in that situation, he doesn't make excuses for it. If you have godly sorrow, you're mad at yourself. Notice what it says in Matthew 20, verse 20. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children, with her sons, worshipping him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left in thy kingdom. Now the two sons that are being referred to are the sons of thunder, James and John. These are great men. These are some of the chief men that Jesus had. And their mom says, I want them to be right beside you in the kingdom. Now for me, I'd be like, Mom, can you quit embarrassing me? It's like, stay away. If I want to be right there in the kingdom, I'll ask him myself. It would be like you're at a job, and your mom shows up and says to the boss, Well, can you make sure my son gets a cookie or whatever? It's just like, a bit embarrassing. Verse 22. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto them, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give. But it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. Notice what it says in verse 24. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. And they're like, How dare James and John want to be the greatest? How dare these two want to be right there beside the Lord in heaven? How dare them think that they're so special? Go to Luke 9. I mean, they have indignation. They're mad about it. And isn't it true it's very easy to get mad about other people's sins? I can't believe they listen to that music. I can't believe that they didn't read their Bible. The question is, if you're guilty of the same thing, will you be just as mad at yourself? Because here's the thing. The other ten are guilty of the same thing multiple times in the Bible. Something very similar. Notice what it says in Luke 9, verse 46. Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest? Luke 9, verse 46. There arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest? Isn't that pretty similar to wanting to be the right and the left beside Jesus Christ? I want to be the best. Go to Luke 22. Luke 22. Luke chapter 22. Apparently this is a big issue in the Bible because they always are arguing about who's the best, who's the best, who's the best. And let's just understand this. It's a stupid argument, right? If an argument came at our church, you know, like, no, I'm going to get more rewards than heaven. No, I'm going to get more. Well, you're probably going to lose rewards for having that attitude. You're probably going to be least in the kingdom of heaven if you regularly have that sort of attitude. Luke 22, verse 24. And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest? And my question to the other ten, my question to Peter, my question to Andrew, my question to all the rest of them is this. You got really, really mad and indignant, the Bible says it, James and John, for wanting to be the best. And yet you're guilty of the same sin multiple times in the Bible. Did you get that mad at yourself when you got called out by the Lord Jesus Christ? And what I'm saying is it's very easy to get very mad at other people when they commit sin, and yet we tend to make excuses for our own sin. And the reality is all of us are guilty of this to some degree. I mean, we're looking at great men other than Judas Iscariot, right, of those 12. Great men, and probably greater men, a lot of them at least, than any of us are ever going to be, right? I expect Peter, James, and John all to get far more rewards than me, so I'm not being super critical. I'm just using it as an example and saying that it's very easy for us to get mad at other people or judge other people for sin. The question is, do you have a giant beam in your own eye, though? Because we're guilty of something, we make excuses, and we have every reason why, well, this is the reason, though. But them, how dare they say they get to be the right and the left hand of Jesus Christ in the kingdom? Turn in your Bible to 2 Corinthians 7. You say, what are you saying, Brother Secchi? You're saying if you have godly sorrow, you get angry with yourself. You're indignant with yourself. You're mad at yourself for the sin you commit, and if you have worldly sorrow, it's like you're mad at the person who calls you out. You're not mad about your sin. It's like, how dare that person say that? Look, I've seen this before at our church in situations we've dealt with in the past where somebody basically reports something to me because it's a major issue, and that person gets mad at the person who reported it. It's like, they're not the ones that committed that sin. It's like, you're mad at them for calling you out. They're not the ones that did the sin. Why aren't you mad at yourself for doing the sin? And yet they're mad at the person that got them in trouble. You say, what is that called? It's called worldly sorrow. They didn't want to get caught. They're not careful to avoid the sin. They're careful not to get caught. That's what they care about. They're mad at the person who called them out for their sin. It says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 11, it said, what carefulness it wrought in you. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. Yea, what indignation. Yea, what fear. Yea, what fear. Fear of what? Well, look at verse 1. Cross-referencing with verse 1. Having therefore these promises, 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Doesn't the Bible say that we're supposed to fear the Lord God? Fear not what man is able to do to you, but him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, referring to the Lord, referring to God. And the Bible says, fearing God, and look, somebody with godly sorrow, when they get called out and they realize they're guilty, they have a fear of God in their life. Number one, they're afraid, what's God going to do to me? Because I really screwed up. And number two, they have this healthy respect and reverence that they've lost for God at some point. Go to Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1. Didn't Nathan say to David, don't worry, God's put away your sin, he's not going to kill you, basically. You say, why did he say that? Because David was afraid he was going to get struck down dead by God, for good reason. And Nathan said, you know, basically, fear not, I'm paraphrasing, but basically, God's put away your sin. Basically, you know what, God could see, and God knew that, you know what, David's going to get right, and I'm going to give him another chance to serve God. But David had a fear, like, I don't know what's going to happen to me. Like, the sin that I committed, right? And someone with godly sorrow, they're going to have a fear of God. What's interesting is, David didn't really have a fear of God when he had Uriah put to death. You know what he had a fear of? He had a fear of getting caught. What's that called? It's called worldly sorrow. See, the fear that's exhibited with someone with worldly sorrow is they're very afraid to get caught, right? But they're not afraid of God. Godly sorrow is a fear of God. See, there's a counterpart to all of these, godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow. Proverbs 28, verse 1. Or actually, Proverbs 1, we're in Proverbs 1, right? Proverbs 1, verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And see, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but if you get lifted up full of pride and sin, sometimes God's got to bring you back down to the beginning just to the basic fear of God so you can start over. Because, look, fear is a great motivator in our lives, right? I mean, the fear of people dying and going to hell is what really motivated me to become a soul winner. I didn't have this burning passion to help people get to heaven. I just didn't want to see people go to hell. It started because I had a burning desire for people in my family, like, man, how am I going to reach them? But then I would know friends and people that I'd run into, and then you stop, you know, understanding hell, and you just look at people as you're going. You're just thinking, man, somebody's got to help these people. It's like seeing somebody in a burning building and nobody's helping them. And it's like, help! I mean, is there a fire truck? Is there something to help them? And just, nobody's helping. And see, that's the reality when it comes to soul winning, and that's really what changed me as a person, where I said, man, I want to just change my life completely. Why? I have a fear of people dying and going to hell. Fear is a great motivator. And look, a fear of God will help motivate you not to commit sin. Why? You're afraid. Look, many times kids don't do wrong because they're afraid of their parents. Right? I mean, all my wife has to do is just show my kids the stick. It's like, I'm sorry. It's like, it'll never happen again. They immediately, because they're afraid of that stick. Right? It's not this specific stick. But, you know, just using an example. Just the warning, I mean, the fear, because they don't want to get that spanking. They don't want to get in trouble. And, you know, oftentimes it will quickly straighten them up. Fear is a big motivator. Okay? And it could be in a good way or bad way. Go to Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28. I mean, one thing I've seen in the last couple years in the world is people have this major fear about everything that could go wrong in their life. You know, ever since COVID started, it was more than two years ago. That's a long time. And there's still a lot of people that are deathly afraid of every possibility. And it's just like, look, I'm not saying that, you know, there's anything wrong with being cautious and people are in different situations. I'm just saying you don't want fear to run your life. You want the fear of God to run your life, where basically I'm going to do what God says. And I remember, you know, like a while ago, I don't want to go on too many rabbit trails, but just fear should not be what runs your life. Accept the fear of God as God's people. Fear not what man is able to do to you. And the context of that is basically, hey, you know, man could literally, you know, like, put you to death. And the Bible says, don't fear that. Fear not. And so, look, if you're not meant to be afraid of somebody putting you to death, then it's just like, hey, we should not be living our lives in a state of fear. We've got lives to live. It's like there's people that are unsaved we've got to reach. It's like there's things to be done in our life. We can't let fear be the driving force of our life. But the Bible says in Proverbs 28, verse 1, The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. And see, the Bible says that, you know, a person that's righteous, they don't have a lot of fear. They're bold. They're confident. But a person who's wicked, a person who's sinful, they live in fear. Why do they live in fear? Because they're afraid to get in trouble. They're afraid to get caught. Now, here's the thing. If I commit a sin, I'm going to be afraid of what God's going to do to me. But here's the thing. If I'm living for God, I'm not really going to be afraid because I'm like, I don't believe God's going to judge me if I'm doing what He says. But here's the thing. If you're living a sinful life, people like that are always afraid of everything that could happen. Go to 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. I mean, there's a ton of homos right now that are afraid about getting monkey pox. Right? Living their life in fear. It's like, you know, what's the solution? Quit being a homo. Oh, that's too late. It's like, well, it is what it is. Right? But just living in fear, like scared to death. In America, it's really interesting because they're trying to force everybody to get the monkey pox vaccine. It's like, only homos are getting monkey pox. I don't need an HIV vaccine. Right? I don't need a monkey pox vaccine. Right? It's just like, why would I be afraid of that when it only affects homos based on all their statistics? Right? Anyways, that was just a rabbit show. 2 Corinthians 7. And it says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 11, it says, what carefulness it wrought in you. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. Yea, what indignation. Yea, what fear. Yea, what vehement desire. Viamant desire. Desire is something that's on the inside. It's a feeling. A strong, passionate feeling. But here's the thing. If you have a strong feeling, it's going to manifest itself on the outside. And it's very closely attached to being zealous, having zeal, which is the sixth one that's mentioned. But basically it's this burning desire to do right. And if somebody is getting right with God, and they really get the sin out of their life, and they really feel terrible about it, what's going to take place is they're going to be very thankful if they have godly sorrow. And they're going to feel like, this is a second chance at life that I did not deserve. And it's going to cause a desire to want to do what's right, if they have godly sorrow. If they don't have godly sorrow, there's going to be no evidence of this burning desire that is newly created in them. Right? You know, if somebody comes to me about a problem, and we deal with the situation, and somebody claims they're getting right with God, but I see no change in a desire to serve God or to do right at all, I'm going to think maybe they're just being very careful not to get caught doing the sin again. Right? Because they should have a desire to do right. There should actually be a change in them where it's like, man, they're like a new man. They're talking about the Bible, they're reading the Bible, they're going to church, they're zealous for the things of God. If there's no change whatsoever in doing good. Because here's the thing, if you get right with godly sorrow, you get rid of the bad, and you add the good. So if somebody doesn't add any good, and there's no new desire or works that were not there before they got called out, I'd be like, did they really get rid of the bad? Because if you get rid of the bad, there should be more good. Doesn't that make sense? And if there's not, it's kind of like, red flag. Question mark. I'm not really sure if they really got rid of the sin like they said they did. Go to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. Psalm 37. You say, Brother Stuckey, you're applying this to church a lot, but I'm not a church leader, why do I need this? Well, I mean, you might be a parent. What about if you have young kids, and look, kids are always sorry when they get in trouble. Always. But that doesn't mean that they always have godly sorrow. Sometimes it's worldly sorrow. As a parent, you need to be able to see this. I mean, your kid can say they're sorry all they want if they think it's getting them out of trouble. That's what a lot of kids do. They'll say, I'm sorry, but they're just words. They don't mean it because they don't want to get in trouble. And here's the thing. As a parent, you need to be able to perceive, does my child actually have godly sorrow? They said they're really sorry for this, and five minutes later they did the same thing. That's worldly sorrow they had. They didn't want to get caught, but they're not actually making any sort of change. I mean, as a parent, as any sort of leader, you need to be aware of these things. Because as a leader, sometimes you've got to rebuke and call out, and then you've got to be able to tell if they're getting it right. How can you tell? What's not based on, they seem sincere in their apology. It's like, no, no, no, let's let some time go by and see. Look, if somebody at our church gets in trouble for a major thing, and they get a warning and say, hey, you know what, you better not do that again, then basically it's like they're on a trial period, and I'm paying attention to everything they're doing. And when we've had those meetings before, before people ever got kicked out, there were meetings beforehand to those people. And maybe they didn't realize that I was paying close attention to what they did, but I was. So I remember having a conversation with my wife. It's like, so and so, they are not sorry at all. And I was like, they are really just trying to make me look bad at the church. And I was like, I can't wait until the evidence will come out, and we can just throw them out. And it happened. Imagine that, you say, brother, that's really harsh. No, it's called not being naive. It's called, as a leader, I can't just always give everybody the benefit of the doubt, say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's like, why is it you keep running into the same issues that nobody else is doing? Because godly sorrow results in a change. And if you had godly sorrow the first time, why does it keep happening? You've got to be a bit mean sometimes to be the leader. And look, that's not my natural personality. I don't like being that way. But if I wasn't a bit rude or mean sometimes, you know what? I would get run over by idiots at our church that are just bad people that need to be thrown out. That's the reality. It says in Psalm 37, verse 3, trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Now, a lot of people would read this and say, see, if you're delighting in God, he'll let you just do whatever you want in your heart. Yeah, but here's the thing. If you're doing right with God and serving God, then your desires will match God's desires. Because when you're reading the Bible and you're right with God, you want to read the Bible. You want to go soul winning. But look, if you have desires, I want to get drunk. God's going to give me the desires of my heart, right? That's not what it's saying, okay? When your desires match God's desires, God is going to help you accomplish those desires because he wants them to happen. That's what the Bible's stating. Go to Ecclesiastes 2. We'll look at a few more places. Ecclesiastes 2. Ecclesiastes 2. See, a person with godly sorrow has a strong desire to do right, but a person with worldly sorrow, they don't. They don't desire to do sin and commit the same sin. They're just going to be careful not to get caught in the future. And it says in Ecclesiastes 2, verse 10, And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion of all my labor. And this is Solomon writing a book, and he's basically telling us how foolish he was, living a sinful life, and he said, Whatever I desired, I just fulfilled. Now, look, I'm sure there were times that Solomon felt guilty for his sin, but the problem is he never had godly sorrow. You say, Why? Because there's no change in desire. He's still doing the same thing over and over and over again. And look, somebody who gets in trouble for something, just think of a drunk because drunks are told all the time by their family, You're destroying your life. You're destroying our family. Quit drinking. And they always just make excuse after excuse after excuse. You say, Why? Because they still have a desire to do wrong. If their desire changed, then they'd be like, Yeah, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. I'm going to be careful not to commit that sin. I want to clear my name from that sin. You know what? I want it to be said 10 years from now that so-and-so is 10 years clean, 10 years sober, someone with godly sorrow. Turn your Bible to 2 Corinthians 7. See, a lot of people feel like if somebody gets in trouble for something that basically you should just always forgive them no matter what. They said they're sorry, just accept it. But is that biblical? Is that really what the Bible says? Because I seem to remember a story in the Old Testament with a man by the name of Shimei. Who knows that name from the Old Testament? Solomon and Shimei. And basically Shimei cursed David, and basically he's given like a trial period. Solomon doesn't put him to death, but basically Solomon says, Okay, I'm going to give you these instructions. You do these things, and I'll let you live. But if you don't do what I say, you're going to be put to death. You say, Why would he do that? Because Solomon doesn't believe this man has godly sorrow. Number one. And I don't believe David believed that either, although David for whatever reason didn't do the job himself. But he said, You're a wise man, son. You know what to do. And Solomon was wise. He knew what to do. And he basically said to Shimei, You're on a trial period. But here's the thing. He probably said it in a way where Shimei just thought, Hey, I can do whatever I want. I don't have to listen. You say, Brother Stuckey, what do you do at a church? I do the exact same thing. If somebody gets in trouble where they're close to the point of getting kicked out, I give them instructions like, And I'll just tell them, Do this, this, and this. Don't do this. And I usually try to say it in a non-too-aggressive way so they don't think I'm serious. But then all of a sudden when they actually do it, it's just like, Hey, you told me you were going to do this. You said you were going to apologize to this person. I just asked them. You said you were going to apologize tomorrow morning. It's been 24 hours. I was like, You're thrown out of the church. You say, Why would you do that? That's pretty harsh. That's exactly what Solomon did with Shimei. Where basically it's like, Let's see if they're actually going to do what they're supposed to. Do they really have godly sorrow? Look, that's the way I would suggest. And look, don't you do the same thing with kids? Where it's like basically, Hey, you know what? Don't do this again or you're going to get a spanking. And sometimes they'll test you to see if you really mean it. Now, as a parent, if you tell your kids they're going to get a spanking if they do such and such, you have to actually spank them when they do such and such. But sometimes your kids will test you. But you know what? I do that as a parent sometimes. Like, Hey, you know what? I'll forgive you. You said you're sorry. I'll accept it. If you do it again, you're going to get a bigger spanking. And sometimes they do it again. I mean, I've got great kids. I love my kids, but they're not perfect. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. And as a leader, this is actually what you should be doing because you want to see whether they're sincere. It's like, Okay, you said you're sorry. I can't know for sure whether you mean it or not. Okay, I'll accept it. But if this happens, then you're going to be kicked out from our church. And guess what? Most people like Shimei, they do it anyway. Because they think they're going to get away with it. They think you're not really serious. Brother Succy's too nice to ever do that. Right? That's probably how a lot of people felt before I ever kicked anyone out of this church because I'm not naturally someone who just likes dealing with those situations. But it's just like, well, you know what? It's not my favorite part of the job, but it's still part of the job. And I'm going to do my job. Anyway, that's what Solomon did where it's like, I'm sure Solomon didn't want to have to put him to death, but it's like, well, he's on a trial period, didn't listen, he gets put to death. 2 Corinthians 7, we'll quickly fly through these last ones. And it says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 11, and it says in the sixth one, it says, Yea, what zeal, yea, what zeal. Now, desire is more of an inside thing, but zealous is very similar, but it really kind of works itself out on the outside more. But they're very associated with one another. The Bible speaks about being zealous of good works. But go to 2 Corinthians 9, 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 2. And look, I'm preaching this sermon because we're just preaching various sermons. Like, I don't know of any issue that we have right now. Right now, as far as I know, we have great unity at all of our churches, and I'm very thankful for it. You know, we haven't had any problems for a long time now at our churches. Things are great, but we'll have problems in the future. It's like, it is what it is. One of my good friends in the ministry, I just found out, he had to kick out like 25% of his church, 30% of his church, just in the last week. Four families thrown out of the church because they try to take over the church. It's like, yea, you know what, I know what that feels like. It's like, I know people saying they're going to overhaul the leader and just take over the church and just run the church because Brother Stuckey doesn't know what he's doing or whatever. It's like, yea, you know what, the situation of Korah just kind of pops up in every century, doesn't it? Kind of pops up everywhere. I wish it didn't. Look, I wish that I never have to kick anybody out ever again. That would be great. That ain't going to happen. I wish that were the case, but just reality, you know what, issues happen at church. It is what it is. And here's the thing, you say, Brother Stuckey, it just seems so harsh. I mean, why do we have to do that? Because I'm protecting you. That's the reason why. Because bad people or people that cause problems, they take advantage of good people. And here's the thing, if I don't do anything about it, it's going to cause good people to leave. I'd rather bad people left. I mean, literally, there's been people at our church that have told me before about, before I dealt with the situation, that they were like, man, I even thought about leaving the church because I was like, at the church, it was such an issue with that person causing so many problems with me and my life. It's like, if you don't deal with those issues, good people leave the church. Well, look, if we have to have someone leave the church, bad people leave. Not good people. Pretty basic to me, right? Basic common sense, basic logic. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 2, For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achiah was ready a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very many. He speaks to the church of Corinth, and what he says is, your zeal has provoked people to do right. He's like, it's not just that you said you're sorry. I see the carefulness, right? I see you want to clear your church's name from that sin, right? I see that desire popping up on the outside. I see that fear of God. I see your zeal to do good. Your zeal has provoked other people now. You got rid of the bad, and now there's all this good. And you have indignation and anger and hatred towards that sin and towards yourself for committing it. Turn your Bible to 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. Last one. 2 Corinthians 7. And it says, yea, what, via men desire. Yea, what, zeal. Yea, what, revenge. Yea, what, revenge. You say, Brother Stuckey, revenge of what? Go to 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And when you cross-reference, just kind of a tip, trying to stick with the same book or chapter is very, very helpful. It will oftentimes really give you the information. Obviously, you can look at the word throughout the Bible, but really the same book is oftentimes where you're going to find the answer. And it says in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 6, and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. And the Bible says basically, you know what, if you're guilty of a sin and you've committed a sin and you want to get it out of your life and you have godly sorrow, you consider that sin your enemy. I want to revenge it. I want to fight against it. Hey, you know what, drugs have won the first 10 rounds. I'm going to knock it out before round 12. Right, I've spent years of my life living in that sin. I'm going to fight against it and live the rest of my life clean. I'm going to fight against and revenge that sin. It's never happening again in my life. You want to revenge and fight that sin. What about worldly sorrow? Worldly sorrow is you want to revenge the people that called you out for the sin. Oh, I've seen that in action as well. And what's really frustrating is when you deal with an issue and you know somebody at the church is your enemy. They hate you. They know they're in trouble and you can tell they hate you and you see them week after week because here's the thing, when these situations come up, I will pay very close attention to that person. Average person's not paying that close of attention because it's not really an issue that you have to deal with and they're not your personal enemy. But it's like I'm not the one who committed the sin, but then I become their enemy and I see it. And I see them trying to revenge me and make me look bad. And it is a very frustrating thing when you're just like, oh, this person. It's like because you're just waiting for enough evidence because it's a lot of circumstantial stuff, but it's like this person is my enemy. They don't like me. And what they're doing is they're not mad at themselves. It's like it doesn't even matter what sin they commit. They commit a major sin. They don't feel bad about it at all. But they want to revenge the person or people that called them out. They want to revenge me because I'm the person dealing with the situation. And it's like I've seen it. I've paid attention to it and it's like I can see it happening week after week. It is a frustrating thing. But here's the thing. You know what? It's eventually going to manifest itself. They're foolish enough or arrogant enough to think, you know what? I can get away with this, but you're not going to get away with it. It's going to manifest itself just like it did with Cora. It always does. You just have to be patient. It makes me mad, but you've got to just be patient with it. And as I said, I don't know of a situation right now that we're dealing with that I'm like, man, I'm patiently enduring. But look, I know that every church leader deals with this sort of stuff where basically there's people at the church that don't like them and they're trying to destroy the church, take over the church, destroy it from the inside, starting rumors, trying to make you look bad, doing all of these very subtle things. And it's very obvious to you. It's very obvious to your wife. You see it every single week. But it's not obvious to the average person. The average person has no idea about it. They have no idea whatsoever. And eventually it manifests itself, and then people are shocked. I can't believe they did all those things. That's horrible. It's like, yeah, it's pretty horrible when you've got all this circumstantial evidence and you're waiting for it, and then it ends up manifesting. But here's the thing. Worldly sorrow, you will have a revenge that comes over you. You want to revenge the person. I mean, remember Samuel feels really bad about Saul, but he's also afraid Saul's going to kill him. Right? It's just like he's afraid. He's like, man, I feel bad. Saul is my friend, but I think he might want to kill me. He wants to get revenge and kill me. Right? But if you have godly sorrow, you're mad at yourself, and you want to fight against that sin. Right? Turn in your Bible to 2 Chronicles 16. We'll just look at two more places. 2 Chronicles 16. You know, a while ago, Pastor Mendez preached a sermon. I can't remember the name of it, but he talked about some of the luxuries you have being a church member and not being a church leader. And I think he said this in the sermon where basically as a church member, you sort of have the luxury to be a bit naïve about situations or you can always think the best, but I can't because I'm the one who has to be the judge. Here's the thing. You know, probably most judges are like, I don't have to try many cases today. Right? I get paid the same amount anyway. Right? I'll be honest. I'll be happy if I never have to judge a case ever again at church. That'd be great. Please help me with that. Please don't cause me problems where I have to deal with something. That would be great. But here's the thing. If I have to, then you know what? I've got to do things correctly. And I don't have the ability to just say, well, you know, we should just give them both another chance or forgive them or whatever. It doesn't work that way. Sometimes, you know what? People have to get kicked out. Sometimes discipline has to happen. Now look, obviously many people at our church have been here for a long time. It's not like this happens. Like, oh man, I said something bad in Brother Stuckey. I didn't say hello to Brother Stuckey and he kicked me out. Man, I should have just said hello. I can't believe I made that mistake. That's like the tenth person that got kicked out for not saying hello to Brother Stuckey. Look, it's not like I just want to kick people out of our church. If you're not doing anything bad, I don't have a problem with you. But if you're doing things that are wrong, then yeah. If you're causing major problems, then yeah, then I'll be mad about it. It says in 2 Chronicles 16, verse 7. Actually, just go to verse 10 for sake of time. And in verse 10, Hanani the seer, or the prophet, rebukes King Asa. And King Asa is a good man. But notice what it says in verse 10. Chapter 16, verse 10. Then Asa was wroth with the seer. Wroth with the seer? Why aren't you indignant, wrathful, angry with yourself? You get rebuked for a sin. I mean, if you had godly sorrow, you'd be indignant with yourself. But he's not indignant with himself. He's indignant with the prophet that called him out. There's the worldly sorrow. And put him in a prison house. You say, what's that? That's called the revenge. You call me out for your sin, I'm going to throw you in jail. You call me out for your sin, I'm going to sue you. All right, that didn't happen here. That's just in my life. My bad. For he was in a rage with him because of this thing, and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. And he's angry and full of rage and fury. Why? Because he's guilty, and he gets called out. It's like if he had godly sorrow, you know what? He'd be like, man, I'm really sorry. I can't believe I screwed up. I hope God will forgive me, but whatever punishment he gives me, it's just, it's fair. If he had godly sorrow. But if you have worldly sorrow, you want to revenge the person that called you out. Go to 2 Corinthians 7. We'll close up. 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. If you're a leader in any sort of way, you ought to be paying attention to these things for the people if you ever have to rebuke them. Well, let's see whether or not we see these changes. As I said, as a parent, you need to be aware of these things. The Bible gives us guidance. Although this is not directly attached to children, it's for any leader. These are the sorts of things that you should be looking for if you have to rebuke something. Make sure there's changes. And if you're not seeing the changes, then it's like, okay, you've got to take it to a more serious level. But here's the thing. Whether or not you're a parent or you say, I can't think of being a leader in any way or whatever, here's the thing. All of us can look at our lives in areas we struggle with in sin and just ask ourselves about the same sin we keep committing. Okay, do I have godly sorrow about this? Right? And ask ourselves, am I really getting this right or not? And you know, I really thought about this this past week just because I'm preaching through it, I was really just thinking because I don't claim to have my entire life 100% perfect. And I was like, I need to have some godly sorrow to make some changes in my life. I want to get better as a person, be more zealous for God, serve God more, get rid of some of the bad and put in good. And we should all have that attitude where we say, hey, you know what? I want to have some godly sorrow in my life. I want to have genuine repentance for the sins I've committed and the wrong I've done. I want to serve God even more, be more zealous and have a stronger desire than I did before. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 11. For behold this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort. See, a time period goes by and Paul can state these things because he's seen it in action. You can't tell immediately whether or not someone has true sorrow. The only reason why Nathan knew for sure David was truly getting right is because of the fact God told him. Because Nathan said to David that the Lord hath put away your sin. God had actually told Nathan, so Nathan knew that David was going to get right. But in a normal situation when you talk to someone, you can't tell for sure. The way you can tell is if time goes by. And if you see somebody being very careful that they're not going to commit that sin, and you see them basically clearing themselves, or basically they're ashamed for that sin. They're embarrassed. They don't want to be associated with it. You see them being angry or upset with themselves. Not at anybody else. Not making excuses toward, well so and so did this, but they're mad at themselves. You see them have a fear of God, where they're afraid of basically doing wrong in the future. Where they want to serve God and do right, and they're afraid of the power of God and the judgment of God. You see a desire to do right. You see a zeal. And you see revenge. Revenge meaning revenging against that disobedience. Fighting against that sin and saying, hey it's never happening again in my life. Now look, this is seven attributes the Bible gives us of genuine repentance. And these are the things that you should look for in your own life if you're getting right in an area. You should honestly look at these things and say, hey I say I'm sorry, and here's the thing, you know what? Many times you feel sorry in the moment, but then is it godly sorrow? And we can feel sorry, but we've also got to look at ourselves and say, okay I'm looking at these attributes. Am I exhibiting these attributes? I need to make sure it does not happen again. As a leader, you've got to be aware of these things. If somebody gets in trouble for something, they get rebuked for something, you've got to look at these attributes and see, do they have godly sorrow or are they just saying what I want to hear? Let's close in with a prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic. And I ask you to help all of us in this room strive to serve you and do right and get rid of our sins. Help us to all have genuine repentance over the sins in our lives and the areas that we struggle with God. And I ask you to help us that are leaders in this room. Help us in the areas that we have leadership and authority. Help us to judge in a correct way and in a wise way. And although these situations are not always fun to deal with, help us be willing to do the tough things sometimes, God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for watching!