(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

MUSIC As is our custom, we will read the entire chapter. Please follow along with me silently as we read 2 Corinthians chapter 7 starting in 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. 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 ye 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 come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless, God, that comforteth 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 rejoiced 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 ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye 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 ye sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you! Yea, what clearing of yourselves! Yea, what indignation! Yea, what fear! Yea, what vehement desire! Yea, what zeal! Yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had 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 joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. For if I have boasted any thing 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, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things. For the cow, would you pray for us? Alright, if it screeches, it's not my fault. Don't get mad at me. Don't shoot the messenger. Alright, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter number 7 and it took us a little while to get through chapter 6, but we're here to chapter 7 and we're going to finish the whole chapter tonight. And in verse number 1 it says, having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness and the fear of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you Lord so much for the ability to come and just study the Bible together tonight. I pray Lord that you would fill me with your spirit, fill me with boldness and power as I preach your word. Lord I pray that you would fill everybody here with your spirit. Lord help us to pay attention Lord. I know many are tired. They've worked a long week. I pray that you would just lift us up and energize us for a little while tonight as we focus on your word. Lord help us to apply it to our life whether it be part of the sermon or just the Holy Spirit convincing someone of something that needs to change in our lives. Lord I pray that you would just help us tonight. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Alright, so what is Paul talking about here in verse number 1? Having these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. Well, you know, obviously before I address that part of it, what promises is he referring to? So when there's a therefore, that is there for a reason, right? So it's referring back to the last chapter. So just flip back one page in your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, look at verse number 16, the Bible says, And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. So having therefore these promises, well what's his promise? Well I'll dwell in them. I will walk in them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. But what is it in context to? Separating yourselves, separating your lives unto God, and separating from the things that you shouldn't be involved in, the people you shouldn't be around, the places you shouldn't go, the things you shouldn't partake in, those types of things. So the more holy you are in your life, and obviously nobody's going to live a sinless life, nobody here is sinless, but God still wants us to be as perfect as we can be. He wants us to work on getting sin out of our life. He wants us to work on those besetting sins that we have problems with. And so look at verse 17, you're still over in 2 Corinthians, it says, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. So there's another promise, and it says, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Now obviously to become a son or a daughter of God, you must just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 1-12 it says, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. But God also, you know, you don't want him to be an angry father, alright? It's always beating you, you know, because parents are supposed to spank their children, right? And so if you're one of God's sons or daughters and you're constantly messing up, you're constantly sinning and just living an un-Christian life, or not keeping the commandments, things like that, then God will chastise you, but not to hurt you or to, I mean, it is to hurt you, but not to, you know, not for, it's for your own good, basically. And you've probably gotten a spanking before and your dad said that was for your own good. And it's true, right? Sometimes it is for your own good. I can think of spankings that were for my father's own pleasure, where he probably was just mad and, you know, probably overreacted or whatever. But I've also gotten ones that I never forgot and I stopped doing that thing which I was not supposed to be doing. And so that's the reason why God chastens his children is because, you know, he wants us to stop what we're doing, right? He wants us to stop the actions we're doing. So let's go back to verse number one in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and it says, Having therefore these promises, so the promises that I just read to you, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. So obviously this is what God's talking about, getting away from that filth of the flesh and spirit. So there's fleshly things that we would sin a sin with and then there's spiritual things where we would sin a sin with, you know. And obviously our mind thinks of things that, you know, maybe our body doesn't act out but it's still something within our spirit that's wrong. And maybe it's something that's spiritually wrong with you that you're not, maybe you're not believing a promise in the Bible. Maybe you're not believing something the Bible says. Maybe you're ignoring something that God's trying to tell you. You know, God gives us his word so that we can read it. In the morning and in the evening we're supposed to read it. Every night, every day we're supposed to read God's word. And why? Because he wants to speak through us. That's how God speaks to us is through his word. So if you never read the Bible, you don't read it in the morning, you don't read it in the afternoon, you don't read it at night. If you never read the Bible, is God speaking to you? He's not. Now you can listen to preaching but that isn't a substitute for Bible reading. You're going to learn most of your doctrine or learn most of your nuggets of truth through just Bible reading by itself. So you're going to learn some deeper doctrines the more you read the Bible. And the Bible is filled with layers of doctrine. There's lots of different interpretations sometimes for certain scriptures. There's a carnal application and there's a spiritual application. Sometimes there's multiple carnal and spiritual applications to several verses. And I've given, I've talked about that before in other sermons. But look what it says in verse, oh and then it says, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So, you know, if you don't fear God, you're never going to try to get holy. You're never going to try to perfect yourself. You know, we have to get back to where we actually fear God. And you know what, when he takes you to the woodshed every once in a while, that's a way to get him to fear you. You know, some people aren't afraid of their dad. You know, because they've never gotten a spanking before. You know, you have to spank your children sometimes. They have to know that dada means business and mom too. So mom, you don't get to get out of that. The Bible says we're supposed to chasten our sons while there's hope. You know, we don't want them to turn out to be a brat. We don't want them to turn out to be some kind of a monster. You know, we want to raise them and God is there for us and he chastens us because he loves us. You know, have you ever gotten a spanking from your dad or your mom and they say, I'm doing this because I love you. You know, it might not feel like love at the time, but it actually is. It actually is loving. You know, sometimes things that hurt are loving. Sometimes hearing some of the things in the Bible, they hurt you, but they're loving. You know, the Bible should reprove you. The Bible should rebuke you when you're doing something wrong. But hey, if you never open it up and read it, you're never going to hear from God. You know, unless you're listening to preaching, which you're going to hear from God through the preaching of his word. But, you know, he wouldn't say for us to read the Bible every day and night, you know, if we weren't supposed to. What did Jesus say a lot of times to the people that would ask him questions? He said, have you never read? Have you never read the scriptures? Did you not read? You know, so it's something we're supposed to do. If you actually call yourself a Christian, you should read the Bible. Now, let's move on to 2 Corinthians 7 verse 2. It says, receive us. We have wronged no man. We have corrupted no man. We have defrauded no man. So, he's saying, hey, you know, just like God receives you when you, you know, cleanse yourself from your filthiness and all that stuff, you know, receive us. You know, Paul the Apostle started a lot of churches and, you know, sometimes he'd come back and it wasn't so favorable to him. I've always thought that was really weird that someone that gets you saved, you have a problem with that person. Or you don't like their instruction to you. You don't like their reproof to you. And I just find that strange when someone gets saved by somebody and then they turn against them. They turn, you know, or somebody in their family got saved through your church or something and then all of a sudden you're the enemy. And it's like, well, yeah, but your family member wouldn't even be saved if they never came to this church, you know. And I've seen that happen quite a few times and it's just like, you know, they get fixated on something dumb and then, you know, they forget about all the blessings that they've had as they've come to this church or any church they go to. And so Paul's saying, hey, receive us, we've wronged no man. We've corrupted no man. We've defrauded no man. They haven't stolen from anybody or corrupted them in any way. I speak not this to condemn you. For I have said before that you're in our hearts to die and live with you. So the Apostle Paul, like, he makes it very clear how much he loves this church at Corinth. He says, you're in our hearts to die and live with you. You know, it's like ride or die, you know. It's like, you know, hear those old rap songs or whatever, don't listen to them. But they sing stuff like this, you know, it's time to ride or die or whatever, you know. But that's what the Apostle Paul feels like. He's like, hey, I'm down. You know, I'm going to ride or die with you. You're in our hearts and I'm ready to lay down my life for people that I love. And it says in verse 4, great is my boldness of speech toward you. So the Apostle Paul, hey, if someone loves you, they're going to tell you the truth. They're going to tell you the right things. It doesn't matter, you know, someone's not a good friend if they never tell you the truth. If you call yourself a friend and someone asks you for their opinion and you know that you need to give them the right answer and you don't because you're placated or you're just afraid to step on their toes, hey, if that person doesn't want to be your friend anymore because you told them the truth, that person's not a good friend. You know, people just want to hear what they want to hear. They want their ego stroke. They want everybody to tell them how right every decision they make is. And there's some people out there that if you disagree with whatever they said, even though they asked you, they won't be your friend anymore. They get upset. And not everybody that corrects people is always right either. Sometimes your friends can be totally wrong. I mean, just think about Job's friends, you know. They thought Job was, you know, doing all this sin or whatever, and God finally had to step in at the end and just say, hey, all these, everything that they're saying is wrong. Job is right. Job didn't do anything to deserve this. And, you know, so God is, you know, he's going to step in in those times of need. But, you know, Paul's saying, hey, if I'm going to live and die for you, if I'm going to, you know, you're my heart. If I'm going to live for you, I'm going to die for you, then, you know, I'm also going to have great boldness of speech towards you. If something needs to be rebuked, I'm going to rebuke it. If something needs to be reproved, I'm going to reprove it. He says, great is my glorying of you. So not only does he have great boldness of speech toward them, he loves them, but he also glories of them. Hey, have you seen my church down in Corinth, how much they've turned it around? Because, I mean, I'm reading this chapter and I'm thinking, you know, they still probably have some problems to work out, but this chapter kind of encapsulates how far they've come since the first book, since the first letter that he had to write them. The last letter he had to write them, he had to reprove and rebuke them about a lot of different things. And he specifically brings one of those things up, one of the major issues in 1 Corinthians. And so, he says, great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying to you. I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all tribulation. So, I mean, to me, that seems like a weird thing to say, because when I'm going through tribulation and things like that, I don't always feel comfort. I don't always feel joyful. As a matter of fact, usually it's anxiety that I feel. I think most people, when they're being afflicted, you know, you're in the moment, you're not feeling joyful, you're not filled with comfort. But Paul's saying that he is. You know, and he's gone through it, hasn't he? He's gone through enough to where he's been tested. You know, he understands what it's like to get beaten. He understands what it's like to, you know, in one instance he gets beaten and thrown in jail. And then in another instance, he says, hey, did you happen to know that I'm a Roman citizen? And then stops the beating from happening. So, he's been on all ends of the spectrum. He's been beaten, he's been, you know, tortured, he's been hurt by people, and he's been chased, he's been, you know, I mean, if you look at the list, he went through a lot of stuff. And, but that can help us in our life. And so, maybe Paul the Apostle can say with a little more assurance than we could, because maybe our affliction is not even close to what the Apostle Paul went through. I mean, we've never gone soloing in a town and had to worry about so much things that he had to worry about. I mean, yeah, I mean, we went into, we've gone into some places that were a little shady. Those are usually the best fishing holes, though, for soloing, right? We went to the Indian Reservation in Yakima, and we went to White Swan. Did anybody in this room go with me to White Swan? White Swan, no. It was like a, we took some people that were, you know, I think Pastor Shelley was with us and some other people, and that town was pretty crazy. Like, this car pulled up to me, and like, I'd heard that the gangs are really bad, but it's like a really small town. It's like that show in the heat of the night. I never watched it, but I understood the concept of the show, is that it's these police officers, and there's all these murders and crazy things that happens, but it's like a really small town. It's like, it doesn't seem like it'd be very hard to figure out who the people are that are doing the crimes. So, but every week, there's a new, like, crazy crime that happens there. But that's kind of like what White Swan is like. And there's like gangs there, and there was this house that had, like, spray paint 187 all over it. There was packs of dogs led by a killer Chihuahua that we were there, and right when we got there, that Chihuahua was like, you know, he, like, flashed a gang sign at us, and he was like, what's up? And I was, I actually was kind of a little bit freaked out, I have to say. But this car full of Native American guys pulled up, and they just, like, pulled up to me when I was walking in the street. I was like, hey guys, how's it going? They're like, hey, what's up? You know, we're just talking. And they're like, yeah, be careful, there's gangs around here and stuff like that. And I was like, are you guys gang members? And they're like, yeah. I was like, nice to meet you, have a great day, you know. They left us alone, you know, but sometimes you walk, you go into places that are a little more scary, but, you know, the point I'm trying to make here is that, you know, sometimes, you know, it takes being persecuted to understand, you know, what it's like to be able to say, like the Apostle Paul said, I'm filled with comfort. I'm exceeding joyful in all tribulation. I don't think many people in this room have arrived to that comfort level yet of exceeding joyful in tribulation. You know, but the Apostle Paul did say that. But if he can say that, then we should also be able to say that as well. You know, the more persecution, the more tribulation that we go through in our life, and that can come from all different areas of our life, it can not even be a Christian thing. Remember, we live in a fallen world, and so fallen things happen to fallen people. And, you know, just time and chance happens to everybody. Dylan, my son-in-law, he got chased in a crazy, by some crazy guy that was road raging on him and trying to literally kill him on his way to Houston tonight. And he sent a message to us about the whole thing. He said, I can't put it all into words, but like the guy was like, you know, his car was way faster than Dylan's. And at one point, Dylan had to hit him with his car, and he was like ready to shoot this guy because, you know, the guy was trying to kill him. You know, he was like, I don't want to have to shoot this guy. He was driving with his son, like his little son in his car. And then I guess he had a friend that was helping him, trying to box him in, and like he said, I had to like go the wrong way on one-way streets and run stop lights and everything. This guy was just trying to kill him, and it was because, you know, he thought that Dylan cut him off in traffic. So that had nothing to do with Christianity, did it? That had to do with Dylan being a bad driver. But I'm just kidding. But he was really scared, you know, and I don't blame him. But sometimes things like that happen, and so we don't know, you know, we're going to go through tribulation. I mean, you get sick. I mean, that might not have anything to do with church, but it could. You go to church, you're going to get sick sometimes. But I'm just saying that, you know, we go through all kinds of affliction, and the Apostle Paul is saying, hey, I'm filled with comfort. I'm exceeding joyful in all tribulation. Let's turn to 1 Peter 5 or 7. I touched on these verses at the end of my sermon last week, but I dwell on things sometimes, and I like to go back to them, especially like two times in a row. But I really like this set of scriptures that really spoke to me last week, and I feel like, you know, this is why Paul can feel this way. It says in verse number 7, 1 Peter 5, it says, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. So, and it's talking about the cares of this world, the cares of this life, the things that we stress about, the things that we have anxiety about, the problems we have, the sadness we have with loss, or anything that we have, you know, those are cares, you know. And Jesus said, you know, Jesus cares for us. It says, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. So who can we put all of our problems on? We can put all of our problems on, all of our cares in this world. We can put those on who? Jesus Christ, because he cares for you. If anybody, you know, you're like, you can say, well, my mom cares for me, my dad cares for me, my kids care for me. And lots of people might care for you in this world, but I know for sure one person, maybe nobody likes you, maybe the dog won't even play with you. But I'll tell you this, there's one person, if you're saved tonight, that will care for you no matter what, and that's Jesus. He cares for all your problems. You know, some people will just pretend like they care. Some people will like, you know, just, well, I'm really sorry, and maybe they don't really care. But you know, Jesus always cares. He cares what we go through. It says in verse 8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. So we have this, you know, this Satan who's actually a real entity, and he's not a good guy. You know, I know that there's a show about, called Satan or Lucifer or something on. It's like, how crazy is that? I mean, you know you're in 2022 when there's actually a show called Lucifer on television. And so that's a wicked show. You know, we have an adversary called the devil, and people try to make it seem like he doesn't exist. You know, there's that saying that, you know, the greatest trick that the devil ever played was convincing the world that he didn't exist. But he does exist, and he's our adversary. You know, it says because your adversary the devil, he's everybody in this room's adversary, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And who does he want to devour? Well it says, whom resist steadfast in the faith. And so when your name is Steadfast Baptist Church, you might have someone named the devil try to resist you. And when the people that go to a church called Steadfast Baptist Church are steadfast in the faith, then you might get it double. And they've been getting a lot of issues, a lot of problems. They were kicked out of their building. You know, and I just, my heart hurts for them because, you know, they're good friends of ours, and they don't deserve that. You know, evil is being called good, and good is being called evil. You know, Pastor Shelley preached a sermon last night, it's talking about you shouldn't have said that. Well, sometimes people blame the preacher when they say something that's controversial, but if it's in the Bible is it really controversial? It might be controversial to the people outside of these walls, but it shouldn't ever be controversial to anybody in this room. If the Bible says that, you know, someone should be put to death, then someone should be put to death. The death penalty, there's more than just the death penalty for sodomites, there's the death penalty for murderers. And I thought he made a really good point on this because, you know, anybody would say that like a serial killer murderer should be put to death, right? But what they're saying about Pastor Shelley and what they say about me and other preachers is that we're promoting violence. We're trying to call people to violence, but is that what the government is doing when they put someone to death for killing somebody? Or for rape or whatever? I don't even think they put people to death for rape anymore, but when they put people to death, people don't go, well they're preaching violence. You know, I thought that was a good point because if we say that the Bible says that sodomites should be put to death, then that's what the Bible says. You know, case closed. Anybody wants to say anything about it, they're wrong. The Bible's right, God's right. And we shouldn't try to victim blame someone or great church like Steadfast Baptist Church for what they're going through because they preach the word of God. So it says, who resists steadfast in the faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. So that could be, you know, just normal people going through afflictions, normal people going through afflictions, but it also could be your brethren that are outside of these walls. Obviously, that church is going through afflictions, afflictions are accomplished in our brothers and sisters in Christ that are not in this room. You know, we're an independent Baptist church, but just because we're an independent Baptist church doesn't mean we don't have brothers and sisters outside of this wall, outside of this building that we're in that are going through affliction. And we need to remember to pray for those that are going through affliction and those that are going through problems like this. And it says, but the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. And I talked about this in my sermon last week where I just said, you know, sometimes people say, well why do we go through problems, why do we suffer, why do we get afflicted, what's the whole point, what is the reason why we go through this? And it says, after you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. You know, Job went through a lot of things and he was afflicted and, you know, he probably never, he might not even have known the reason why he was afflicted, but he was afflicted and he ended up coming out like gold in the end, didn't he? He passed through those temptations and trials. He lost all 10 of his children in one day. All 10 of his children in one day. You know, and Job got back double of everything that he lost. All the camels, double. All the riches and everything that he got, he got back double of everything and people say, well, he only got back 10 because he had 10 more children. That he didn't have double the children, but he did have double the children, didn't he? Because those children lived on and went to heaven. That's what I believe. I believe that his children did go to heaven. Job prayed for his children continuously and even though they were killed, Job is with them today. Job is in heaven today with all 20 of his children and so, you know, he did get them back, but you can't get back, you know, obviously your loved ones that pass on. You can't get them back in this world, but you're going to see them again in heaven someday and, you know, it's hard to lose people. It's hard to go through pain and death and things like that and it's a hard thing. But, you know, this thing that you should know is if your loved ones are saved, they are in heaven and you know what? You will see them again and that's a blessing from the Lord. But so, why do we go through suffering? Why do we go through heartache? Well, so we can be made perfect, so we can be established, so we can be strengthened, so we can be settled. And God wants us to be all those things and it sounds like the Apostle Paul might have, you know, listened to this sermon from Peter or maybe he read this epistle because he's like, I'm filled with comfort. I'm exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. So, you know, he's basically living what this verse is saying, you know, because he went through more affliction than us all. Turn to Philippians chapter 4 verse 10. Philippians chapter 4 verse number 10. This is the Apostle Paul speaking here. It says, So, the Apostle Paul is, you know, he's basically saying this, you know, when he learns these truths, he likes to show them to other people. And that's good because it's nice to know how you got to that truth, Paul. It's nice to know and he's saying, hey, whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content. He walked around from town to town, starting churches, getting persecuted, but also having great victories, lots of people saved. But he said, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. You know, abased basically means, you know, you're suffering loss. Abound means you have a lot of things. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to the full, to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. So to be full, you know, he went through that, but also he knew what it was like to be hungry. And it's good for us to have adversity in our life because if we never had adversity in our life, we would never grow. We would never thrive in this world and sometimes hard things make us better, don't they? And, you know, at the time we're going through them, we don't feel like, you know, they're helping us. We're like, why is this happening to us? Why does this have to happen now? Why is this one thing happening after another in my life? And sometimes we might not know the answers to that. You know, is God punishing me? I don't know. Is, you know, is this happening because we don't know. Was Job being punished for what he did? He wasn't being punished. He was actually not being punished. He was just going through a tribulation. He was going through a trial. But he says, I know how to be both full and hungry and both to abound and to suffer need. He had all of his needs met and then at times in his life, he suffered those needs. He says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. That's the first scripture that I ever memorized. And it's a short one. It's easy. But that's a great one to memorize. Because at the time when you think, I can't do this. I can't go through one more thing. I can't go through one more trial. I can't go through this. I can't do this hard task. Think about this verse, Philippians 4-13. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. It's Christ the one that gives us strength. And it's Christ the one that we can do all things through. And so can you get through it? You can get through it. Because you know what? Christ is going to strengthen you. Christ cares for you. Christ wants you to abound in your life but also sometimes we have to suffer loss. Sometimes we have to be abased. Sometimes we have to suffer need so that we can get better. You know, I'm bringing up a carnal application here. So don't get mad at me. But with video games. You learn how to get better at the game by playing through it and getting killed, right? You get better. What about playing football? You get tackled a couple times and then you might start trying to learn how to dodge people because they don't get tackled. You don't get hit. There's lots of things in our life that we have to work hard at. You have to get smoked by Brandon playing ping pong to get better. But you're never going to get better unless you face some adversity because if you're just like I'm crushing everybody and it's like all the kids, you're not really that cool. You haven't gone through adversity. You're like I smoked that kid. Did you see that slam I got on him? It's like you're not that cool, man. Why don't you face somebody that's better than you? I remember when I played basketball, I realized at one point that I wasn't as good as I thought I was. And when I realized that, I thought you know what? These guys are better than me. Maybe I need to play with these guys instead of trying to play with the other guys because these guys are so much better than me. And yeah, they're going to massacre you for a while but eventually you're going to learn their moves. You're going to learn what they do and you're going to pick up tips and techniques that make you better. And so through the adversity of getting smoked in basketball games, then you get better and eventually you either surpass them. Depending on how hard you work, you can get better than those people. So adversity makes us stronger. We strive to get through things in our lives. But if you never have to go through anything hard, you're never going to get better. I hope that makes sense. Let's look back at our text at verse 5 in 2 Corinthians 7. It says, For when we were come to Macedonia in our flesh, our flesh had no rest. But we were troubled on every side, without were fightings, within were fears. So Paul's talking about the time when he went to Macedonia. Remember the Macedonian call? We like to preach about that part. And he had a dream that this man in Macedonia said, come over here, come over here and help us. And Paul perceived that that dream was from the Lord. And so immediately they went over to Macedonia. But what did they find when they got there? They got a couple people saved, didn't they? And then they got arrested and they got beat up and they got thrown in prison for preaching. So Paul's talking about they were troubled on every side, without were fightings, within were fears. They're in prison and they're singing songs, they're singing hymns inside the prison. And God did a mighty work there where he had this earthquake happen and the prison door was busted open. And then the Philippian jailer was about to kill himself. They got him saved. They got his whole family saved. They baptized him. The jailer took him to his house and then he baptized them. They fixed up their wounds that they had been beaten. And then he took them back and put them back in jail. He was doing his job. He was a good guard. But they were troubled. They were having all these things but they also had mighty victories through their adversity. And then the next day they were like, alright you guys can just go. And Paul's like, no, you need to come get us out yourself. And he was making a point that like, hey you beat us privately, well you need to let us go openly. And so Paul, he went through some problems when he went through Macedonia. But it says, nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. So who's the one that comforts people that are cast down? What's it say? Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down. Hey we can be cast down but you know what? God's still going to comfort us. And that's where we should seek our solace. That's where we should seek our comfort is from God. Now obviously it's great when a friend comes and puts their arm around you and says, hey I'm sorry you're going through all this adversity or a family member or somebody like that. Because it says, you know, they comforted us by the coming of Titus. So Titus comforted them in some way. And sometimes it's great to have a friend come alongside you at the right moment and make you feel loved, make you feel comforted. Because you know, as Christians, shouldn't we be like Christ? Shouldn't we comfort those that are going through a hard time? You know, obviously God sends people sometimes to those people to be that kind of a comforter to somebody. And who is the comforter is the Holy Spirit. You know the comfort, Jesus said I will send the comforter to you and he says in John 14 that the comforter is the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit will work in people and those people will come and comfort your life for you. And that's, they're sent by God. Look at Acts chapter 28 verse 15, Acts chapter 28 verse 15. Keep your finger in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. We'll turn to Acts chapter 28 verse 15. Here's an example of when this happened with Paul. Now Paul had a really bad boat ride and I preached a little bit about that cyclone, the Uroclaidon that he was caught up in. And like basically, they're all going to die. And God helped them, God ministered to that whole ship full of people. And said hey if you abide in the ship, you know, you'll be saved. And you know, he helped them through that. But you know, Paul, you know, up until this point was going through a hard time and he finally got to Rome where he was supposed to go. It says in verse 15 here, And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appi forum and the three taverns, whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage. Sometimes you just have to see a friendly face and that gives you courage. And Paul thanked God because of those people. You know, it's good for us as Christians to go and comfort people when they're going through a hard time. And you know what, sometimes that's what somebody needs. Sometimes someone just needs someone to reach out and give them some comfort. Let's look back at our text, 2 Corinthians chapter number 7, verse number 7 it says, And not by his coming only, talking about Titus, 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 rejoiced 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 had made you sorry, though it were but for a season. So what is Paul talking about? This is where he starts to explain, you know, what he means by, you know, and obviously it says, I made you sorry with a letter. What is he talking about? Well he's talking about that letter in 1 Corinthians where he had them kick somebody out. And he went hardcore on them, told them that they were puffed up, said you're not doing the right thing, you need to get this person out of your church. And we believe at this church that sometimes there's some people that need to be kicked out, sometimes there's people that need to be marked. But Paul sent them a letter and made them sorry for the bad decisions that they made at the beginning. And he says, I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent. You know, and that word repent, I know we've talked about this a lot, you all probably know what I believe about this, and I'm sure, I hope you believe the same thing, that repent depends upon, what you're repenting of depends upon the context of what you're talking about. Now, so far, are they talking about spiritual salvation in any of this passage? When Brother Eli read the scriptures, was anything talking about getting people saved? You know, there is salvation mentioned in here. But salvation doesn't, just because the Bible says salvation, it doesn't always mean spiritual salvation. Sometimes it means physical salvation. Now, what were they supposed to kick that guy out? Why were they supposed to kick that guy out? So that Satan could what? Destroy his flesh so that the spirit could be saved. The spirit could be saved. So, the guy was saved, but so that spirit would be saved. God, you know, he said, this guy's got to get out, we've got to kick this guy out. And he wrote that letter to make them feel bad about the stupid decision they made because they're basically, you know, just allowing this to take place, they're allowing fornication, they know it's this bad fornication, I'm going to get to that in a minute, but they're just acting like it's not a big deal. And Paul is saying, hey, this is a big deal, this is something that needs to be addressed immediately. So he's saying, I made you repent, or excuse me, I made you sorry with the letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. So what did he repent of? Well, about that guy needing to leave the church. That's what I think. So, the guy needed to leave the church, but now he's restored. So, and then I think we'll see that in other chapters here, but it says, For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. So, it says, Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. For you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. So, what's he talking about here? Well, he's saying you sorrowed to repentance. So, they were making bad decisions about this guy, they needed to kick him out, they weren't kicking him out, but Paul wrote them a letter, said, y'all are sorry, you need to change what you're doing, and fix it, and get this guy out of here, because he's committing fornication, and then, you know, they changed their mind. They repented. So, that's what repentance means. It means a change of mind. You know, but people that believe in a false salvation, and they don't even realize they're doing it. I've just noticed this as I've been in the ministry for five years now. I've realized that you can tell people all day long that what they're doing is adding of your sins at the end of repentance, and they just, they just don't get it. They're like, no, it does say you have to repent. Look, it says repent and believe in Jesus or whatever. It's like, yeah, but when it comes to salvation, you don't have to repent of your sins. And when it comes to spiritual salvation, the day you get saved, the day you're born again, you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved. You just have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when it comes to repenting, biblical repentance unto salvation is that, you know, you change your mind about whatever it is you believed before, and you believe the truth, okay? But what Paul's talking about here, so when people just automatically see that word repent, though, they've been, even the dictionary is corrupted now. The dictionary actually says to be sorry for your sins, to repent of your sins. That's not what it means. It actually means to change your mind, to turn. That's what it means. So whatever you're repenting of, you know, it's just people just want to make this repentance issue a thing about, well, you have to be sorry for your sins or you can't be saved. Is that what the Bible says? Show me the verse where it says be really, really sorry and thou shalt be saved. Show me that verse. Show me. If anybody has the verse, please come tell me. You know, and I'm not saying you shouldn't be sorry for your sins, but do you have to be sorry for all your sins and repent of all those sins before you get saved? No, because then nobody would be saved, because nobody repents of all their sins. It's impossible. And some people will say, well, you have to be willing to turn from your sins. It's like, well, everybody's willing, but that doesn't make them turn from their sins, and that's not a requirement for salvation either. Show me the verse that says you must be willing to turn from your sins to be saved. But anyway, you know, this chapter's not talking about spiritual salvation at all. But see, people will take these verses here that says you started with repentance and you were made sorry after a godly manner, and they'll say, well, you have to have sorrow after a godly manner or you're not really saved. You have to cry tears or you didn't get saved. You know, and that's just not true. You know, we get people saved and they don't cry a tear. We get some people saved and they do cry. Not everybody's on the same emotional level. Not everybody has to be forgiven for, you know, the worst kinds of sins. Sometimes people are just like run of the mill sinners, you know, they stole some cookies out of the cookie jar. You know, that's the extent of their, you know, bad life. But some people have lived a really hard life and done a lot of wicked things. You know, and that person might cry. You know, I'm sure when you have a crying salvation, you know, it's pretty cool because you get to see that the Bible's touched them and God's words touched them. It is cool to see that, but like that's not what always happens. And some of the people that you think were pretty, you know, they were saved. You know, we always have this joke around here where we say, well, they cried so they must have really meant it, you know. But it is a joke because, you know, you don't have to cry to be saved. Thou shalt cry, if thou criest, thou shalt be saved. No, it doesn't say that, does it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And so you have to believe it, you have to understand it, you have to trust Christ to be saved. It doesn't say be really, really sorry and you'll be saved. But people say, whoa, that person wasn't sorry, they didn't even come to church, they didn't get baptized. Are they in church today? I had this bozo evangelist, he was just like, I felt like he was trolling. And I was just, he just like asked a question to this Baptist Christian group or whatever. And he was like, I want to know the results of, you know, what's working for you at your church and all this stuff. And it was just like, you know, how many salvations does your church record? How many baptisms did you have? What are your methods? And it's just like, number one, preach the gospel going door to door, right? Number two, teach that all you have to do to be saved is believe on Jesus, you know? And I just kind of went through this real simple list. I showed how many salvations that our church got as a whole, how many baptisms. Then as soon as I did that, of course, you know, the self-righteousness comes out. Well, I don't know if I believe those numbers because, you know, you had over 2,000 salvations and only like 59 baptisms. I think we had more than 59 baptisms, but that's what I said. But he's like, I, you know, I just kind of doubt the validity of those numbers or whatever. It's like, yeah, because you know what? You don't do that. That's why you doubt the validity of those numbers. You know, whatever you're doing is not working and so you're just like fishing for the right answer. If someone gives you the right answer and you're like, nope, that can't be really it. Because that guy who calls himself an evangelist is just not evangelizing. It's just like missionaries that, you know, want to come to your church and show their slide shows of the sad stories and the people starving and all that stuff. So that you'll give them money and make them feel bad. But that person doesn't even go preach the gospel. So how are you going to be a missionary in another country if you don't speak the language? And, you know, you're going to have to go through like language school for five years. You've got to go around the country and, you know, milk people for all their money. You know, and do all that stuff. And then you don't even preach the gospel. So how are you an evangelist if you're not evangelizing people? You know, an evangelist sometimes in Baptist churches means that they come and do revivals at people's churches. And I've had, you know, I've seen lots of evangelists preach in Olapia churches and it's usually they don't do any evangelizing. So what they call an evangelist is someone that's not qualified to be a pastor or they're a retired pastor or something and they go on the road show. They go on the antique road show of old preachers or whatever and then they just preach in these churches. And sometimes they have a really big following within a certain like Bible college or something like the Golden Calf Baptist College or whatever and Lancaster and all these other different ones. And they have their own little niche within those groups and they preach their summer camps and they preach their men's retreats and they preach whatever revivals. But true revival is actually, you know, when a church is on fire for God and loves soul winning, goes soul winning. And that guy discounted everything that I said to him because he didn't see, you know, because all those people that we got saved don't go to our church. And it's just like that's the same kind of stupid mentality that these people have when they say, well if you're not really, really sorry that you really didn't get saved. But they're taking it from this scripture right here which is not talking about spiritual salvation. It's talking about them being sorry after a godly sorrow for a bad decision they made. And he's saying, hey, you sorrowed to repentance. You know, Paul made them sorry with a letter. He said, you're sorry suckers, you know. You need to repent. You need to change. You need to get this guy out of your church a little leavened, leavened at the whole lump. And so it says in verse 10, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. Now, when you're thinking about life and death, you know, salvation of someone's life, hey, you saved my life. Does that mean that you got spiritually saved? If someone jumps in front of a bullet and you're about to get shot and someone jumps in front of the bullet and they're like, you just saved my life. You know, sorry you're dead. No. But you just saved my life. You know, that doesn't mean that they saved your spiritual life. That's what this is talking about is that this man, the man that they kicked out, his physical life was saved because remember I told you that he said that they want him to get kicked out because so the devil could destroy his flesh. And so he got it right because they got it right. See, when we do things right as a church, when you kick people out for the right reasons and you shun that person that you kicked out, then maybe that person will get it right and come back. But you know what I've seen a lot of times in churches? Some person will commit adultery against their spouse or whatever and then the family members of the person will still take their side. It's like it doesn't matter whether it's your family or not. You don't just side with family no matter what. You side with what the Bible says no matter what. So if your family member is wrong, you shouldn't just embrace them and go, oh, just go ahead and marry this new person anyway. No. You tell them you're wrong. You're wicked and you need to go back and reconcile things with your spouse because that's a wicked thing to do. And so what this church was doing was they were enabling this person to stay in their church and to corrupt them through this fornication. And the fornication was with his father's wife which is sick. But, you know, it says, Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. So basically what Paul's telling them is that, you know, you got it right, he was saved. Not spiritually. He was already saved. He was already saved spiritually. He was saved physically. When Peter walked on the water, he said, Lord, save me when he began to sink, right? Did he say, Lord, save me of my sins? Peter was already saved. He was saying save me from sinking in the water. So, again, not every time it says salvation, it's not always talking about a spiritual salvation. I hope you understand that. So, you know, I'll read you a verse from 2nd Opinions chapter 3 verse 16. It says, repent of your sins and be very, very sorry and thou shalt be saved. That's an opinion. That's what people think, though. They think that you have to be sorry for your sins to be saved. Look, you don't have to be sorry to be saved, do you? Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 11 back in our text. It says, for behold this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you. So what? They learned to be careful with what they were doing. It worked that in them. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. So it got them right. It got them in the clear from what they were doing wrong. Yea, what indignation. They're like, well that doesn't sound very nice to be treating a brother in Christ with indignation. What did Paul say? Get that wicked person out of here. And so that's, you know, shunning is a biblical concept. And so when you shun profane babblings, when you shun people and you kick them out of church, it helps, it's either going to help them get right or God's going to destroy them. That's, it's just, that's what the Bible teaches. And people have a hard time understanding that and just thinking that we're mean. But was Paul mean? Well, he says, what indignation? What does that mean? Well, it means when you're super angry and wrathful with somebody. You're taking vengeance on somebody. Yea, what fear. Yea, what v'hemp desire. Yea, what zeal. Yea, what revenge. In all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. So he's saying, hey, you did all this stuff and you did it right. You cleared yourself of this matter. What was the matter? That they weren't kicking them out and then they did kick them out. Well, let's look at the Scriptures in verse, turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse number 1, 1 Corinthians 5, 1. And we'll get the whole matter here for the most part. I'm not going to read the whole passage, but 1 Corinthians 5 is the kick out chapter, right? So, the Bible, what the Bible says is the most important thing. 1 Corinthians 5, 1 says, It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. So, the guy that we're talking about, you know, was fornicated with his father's wife. And you're puffed up. So here's where he's attacking the church members right here. And you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I barely, as absent in the body, but present in spirit, have judged already. Oh, Paul judged. Ooh. Yeah, that's another thing that people say, you know, I can't believe you're judged. Paul judged already. Said as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are gathered together in my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So, and then it says, Your glory is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So Paul is really getting onto him hardcore here. And he's saying, you guys are doing this all wrong. This is what you need to do. You need to get rid of this guy. You need to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Because you know what? When people leave and go to another church and they're right with God and that other church, they're not in trouble for that. You have free will. You can go to whatever church you want to. But if someone's kicked out for doing something that the Bible says you should be kicked out for, then that person is given, when you kick that person out, then God is going to judge that person. And he's going to judge them. And what's he going to judge? That they would be delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. So remember, Satan is like a roaring lion who run with about seeking whom he may devour. And so when someone gets kicked out of the church, they don't get the death penalty, they get, well they might, but it's going to be by other means. Because I explained this last week, that we can't serve out the death penalty. We're a church, we're a spiritual nation, we're not a physical nation, we're not the nation of Israel physically. We're the spiritual Israel. And so we have to take care of things spiritually. So whatever God tells us to do for these wicked sins, we're supposed to judge people for things that we can judge them for. If someone steals, we can say, hey, pay it back or get out. You don't have to turn them into the police. If someone hits your car in the parking lot, you don't have to take that person to the judge. You can just deal with that personally. If someone takes money from you or you don't pay them when you're supposed to or whatever, that stuff can all be dealt with in the church. But if someone is a child molester, we have to call the police on them. We can't do anything to them. If we find out someone's a sodomite that's going to this church, we just throw them out, say don't come back. But we're not to do or act out anything on our own accord when it comes to breaking laws. We don't have the authority to put people to death. We don't have the authority to lock people in prison. And that's not even a biblical thing to do anyways to lock someone in prison. But the point is that God says, look at verse 12, For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not he judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. What is that saying? Kick that person out. Get that person out of here. So what is this chapter about? Well it's about the fact that Paul's, and we're being explained to this by this chapter, that they got this right. That letter that Paul wrote to them, the word of God as it is, they got right by it. They were sorry for it. They repented of what they had done. They kicked that guy out. And then he gets restored back into the church because he was sorry for what he did. So that's the way biblical punishment goes in the New Testament. You get them out, you kick them out, you shun them. If they get it right, you let them back in. Now obviously if someone's a child molester, they can't get that right because there's something wrong with them. The government should put that person to death. But I'll tell you what, they're never allowed in this church ever again. We're not going to harbor, you know, perverts and pedophiles. So they're out. They're out the door. Now look what it says in, go back to your chapter, excuse me, chapter 7 in 2 Corinthians. It says, Wherefore though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had 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. Why did Paul do all this? Because he cared about that church. Because he wanted them to do it right. And again, that church had a lot of problems in the beginning, a lot of problems. And look at verse 13, it says, Therefore we were comforted in your comfort, yea, and exceeding the more joyed, for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. For I have boasted, 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 so, I like that part of the verse where it says, But as we spake all things to you in truth. See, you would take all that stuff I just said and people would say that that's negative. But sometimes, telling people the truth is negative. Not everything can be positive. You know, there's a lot of churches that are positive only about things. And look, I'm for being positive when it's necessary. But if the Bible is two-thirds negative, two-thirds of this book is negative. If the other third is positive, then two out of three sermons should be negative and one positive out of the three. And why? Because we need that. We need to have the Word of God preached unto us so that we can get things right in our life because we're following people. Because we have problems. Anybody not have any problems this week? Everybody had problems this week, I'm sure. And some people more than others. So, you know, we need the Word of God preached to us so that we can get things right. Paul wrote them a letter so they could get things right. And then he says, hey, you got it right. Good job. I didn't even tell you this. For that guy's sake that did the deed, or for the person who it was done against, I did it for you. So that you could be better. You could be a better church. And so I feel like, you know, Paul is basically telling them, like, you know, you've come a long way, baby. This church has grown a lot. Let's turn to Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 11. Ephesians, chapter 4. Actually, just look at verse 15. Look at verse 15. Ephesians 4, 15, it says, But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. So we're supposed to speak the truth in love. Now people would say, well, you know, you're not being very loving when you say stuff like that. But, you know, truth is hate to them that hate the truth. Truth is hate to them that hate the truth. So if someone doesn't like the truth, they're just going to hate you. They're going to hate that truth. And, you know, there's a whole world of people out there that hate Christians, that hate Christianity, they hate God. And, you know, when we tell them the truths of the Bible, they're going to hate it. But we have to speak the truth in love because it's loving to tell people the truth. Remember towards the beginning of this sermon I was talking about, you're not a very good friend if you're not telling people the truth. Iron sharpens iron. You know, and then friends, you know, faithful to the wounds of a friend. You know, sometimes it's your friend that's going to tell you the hard truth. And if you're a good friend, you're going to tell people the hard truth sometimes. And if I, you know, as the pastor, I hope I'm your friend. I'm going to have to tell you some hard truths though sometimes. Sometimes it's hard for me to get up here and say some of the things that are in the Word of God. God preaches way harder than I do. I mean, if you've been watching that Ezekiel series, read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel all in a row and that's three fairly negative books. I mean, Isaiah has some positive stuff obviously and all of them do. But if you read Ezekiel and Jeremiah back to back, you're going to be feeling negative. Because there's some pretty negative stuff in there. Turn to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. See, we have to tell the truth. And it says in Ephesians 4.15, but speaking the truth in love. You know, obviously you could speak the truth and be a jerk about it. But whether you're being a jerk about it or not, you're still telling the truth. But I mean, I don't think you have to be a jerk about it every time you speak the love of God. Obviously. But we do need to tell the truth. You know, it's just like when you're at the door and you're telling someone that they're, you know, that the Bible teaches that they would go to hell if they died today. Obviously you don't like, you know, just why the match and you're like, you're going here, you know, or something like that. That's like, not necessarily, that's not, you don't need to do that like, as like a prop to your soul winning or something. Like, see this flame? You guys, don't use this, you guys. See this flame? This is where you're going to be. You don't have to be like that, you know, but you still have to tell the truth. You know, the Bible, what's the, what does the Bible say that all liars go to? It says they go to the lake of fire. You know, so if you died today, where would you go? You said you lied before. I mean, do you believe the Bible is true? I mean, so you can be, you can speak the truth in love without being, you know, a jerk or whatever. But look at the Apostle Paul in Acts 20 verse 27. It says, For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the witch, the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that for the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. And so here's the Apostle Paul. He's saying I didn't shun to declare the whole counsel of God. I preached everything in this book. I preached to you all the doctrine. I didn't shun anything. But he's saying, he's admonishing these pastors to feed the flock of God. Take heed therefore. You know, and we've been made, pastors have been made overseers and our job is to feed the church which Christ purchased with his own blood. And he's saying, hey these people, these grievous wolves are going to come in. And there's going to be people within your own church that are going to rise up. I mean have we seen that happen? We absolutely have seen that happen in this church and many other churches like it. There are going to be creepers that creep into our church and they're not going to spare the flock. I mean you all, some of you had that happen to you last week. Where a wolf is trying to rip you to shreds. I love you guys so much. And then just going on and saying a bunch of crap about you. That's what a wolf does. They don't spare the flock. You know, so, and it says, therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. Hey, we're supposed to preach the whole counsel of God. We're supposed to preach the truth and sometimes the truth is negative. Sometimes the truth, you have to, you know, was he negative when he said that stuff to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 5? He was. He was negative. But then because he was negative, they got it right and they turned, and that turned into a positive thing for them. See, the truth was hard to hear but because he did tell them the truth, they did repent and they did the right thing and they were sorry by what Paul had said to them and they got it right. And so that is why you have to preach the truth. Because there's a lot of preachers out there that are doing a lot of back scratching, a lot of pussyfooting, a lot of shining some shoes and they're making everybody feel good about themselves. But you know what, you should sometimes walk out that door and feel bad about yourself. Shame. Guilt. And it's like, well Pastor Thompson, that's not very nice. I know, but if you get it right and internalize that stuff and come back and you get it right, then it's good, isn't it? Because you were told the truth. 2 Corinthians 7.15 says, And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all. How with fear and with trembling you received him, I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things. Now this kind of encapsulates the whole passage for me, it's the last verse, I'm done. I just wanted to say this though, isn't this a far cry from how Paul was talking to them in 1 Corinthians? He's like, I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things. He didn't have confidence in them in 1 Corinthians 5, did he? He didn't have confidence in them in the other chapters, but here he's saying, hey, you've come a long way. You've done well. You've grown. So Paul has watched this church grow in grace and in truth. Because it can't just be all about grace, because the truth has to be preached, whether it's positive or not. So think about this, has your family grown since you started coming to a church like this? Think about what changes have come in your family. And then I'll say this, well, if you haven't changed much, then maybe you're backslidden or maybe you need to work on some things still. But we all do. We all do. But I've watched a lot of people in this church. This church, I would say our church when we first started, obviously we've always been a great church as far as I'm concerned. But you all have learned a lot. And in the last five years, I think that our church is a very mature church. We do have new people coming in all the time, and they're still learning, so that's good. There's some people that have learned a lot, and there's some people that still have to learn. But we're all going to grow together in grace and in truth, but the Bible has to be preached, the truth has to be preached, and problems are never going to get fixed if I don't point the problems out. So if there's some adversity going on in your life, also you need to understand that sometimes those things are necessary in your life to make you better. So anyway, that's 2 Corinthians 7. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great chapter in the Bible. Lord, we can see how that great church grew in knowledge and in truth. And Lord, we pray that you would help us to be a church that's never felt like it's on the pinnacle, Lord, that we still have a ways to go to climb. Lord, help us to always be striving to climb to the top, to run the race that's set before us, and Lord, I pray that you'd help us to get rid of that baggage that's holding us behind, that's hindering us, Lord. I pray you'd help us to get away from that sin that easily besets us, and that you would help us, Lord, and give us some grace, and also, Lord, help us to receive your truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, our last loop is song number 52 in your Blue Hymnals, Come Thou Fount. Song number 52, Come Thou Fount. Song number 52, Come Thou Fount in your Blue Hymnals, song 5-2. Let's sing it out on the first. Come thou fount of every blessing, to my Lord to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, calls for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come. And I know by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, came to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to lead the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Amen. Good to see you, Brother Brandon. Could you close your water prayer? Thank you for watching. Please like, share, and subscribe.