Paul's Love For The Chruch

PAUL’S LOVE…

I) WAS CONFRONTATIONAL VS 8

Illust – the body is self purifying – liver.

I hate to confront or be confronted.

God is confrontational PROV 27:5 “Open rebuke …”

A) HOW DO WE CONFRONT EFFECTIVLY ?

i) EMPATHIZE TO RELATE (not sympathize)

Don’t be condemning

Relate your own frailty.

ii) SPEAK TO COMMUNICATE

Communicate :

Directly – to the person, not to another person.

- to the issue, one at a time.

Honestly – Speak the truth but don’t throw up on the person.

Clearly – Know what you mean before communicating.

- What is the problem ?

- Why is it a problem ?

- How can it be corrected ?

Briefly – Stay with facts, avoid opinions.

iii) LISTEN TO HEAR

Confrontation begins with listening.

Don’t listen to :

- Pacify.

- Get you r turn to talk.

- Get ammunition.

I want to hear :

- Deeply, accurately, and attentively.

B) THE BIBLICAL PROCEEDURE FOR CONFRONTATION

Choose all confrontation wisely.

Distinguish between moral issues and personal preference

(i.e. cultural, racial, age related, etc…)

MATT 18:15-17 Not necessarily the job of the pastor.

We pay him to equip us.

iii) AN EXAMPLE OF POSITIVE CONFRONTATION

II COR 2:6-10

iv) CAN WE NAME PEOPLE ?

3 JOHN 9 “I wrote to the Church but Diotrephes who loves to have the

preeminence among them does not receive us.

2 TIM 2:17,18 “and their message will spread like cancer, Hymenaeus and

Philetus are of this sort. Who have strayed concerning the truth saying that the

resurrection is already past, and they overthrow the faith of some.”

2 TIM 4:14,15 “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord

repay him according to his works. You must beware of him for he has greatly

resisted our words.

iii) THE MOTIVATION - RESTORATION

Discipline is the last resort.

Motivation can not be :

- Manipulation

- Power struggle

- To elevate ourselves

II) LED TO REPENTANCE VSS 9-11

There are degrees of sorrow.

Vs. 9 “Sorrow to the point of repentance”.

A) TWO KINDS OF SORROW

i) Sorrow of the world

This type of sorrow (repentance) :

1) Fears punishment.

2) Has no fear of God.

3) Regrets an action but has no intention on changing that action in the future.

4) Is sorry it got caught.

Qu. – “This type of grief is merely remorse; it has no place for hope, forgiveness, or grace, and simply produces death and despair because it cannot result in positive action”.

ii) The results of worldly sorrow

Adapted from a UPI report - In Huntsville, Texas, convicted murderer Charles Rumbaugh, laughed, then was executed by injection after ten and a half years on death row. Rumbaugh who was 28 committed his first crime when he was 6 and was sentenced to die at the age of 17 for killing a jeweler during a $54 robbery He did not try to evade his execution, saying, "I don’t care anymore. I’m bored." The tragedy of sin is multiplied without repentance.

iii) Godly sorrow

1) Is based on love for God

2) Is sorry because it offended God.

3) Wants to change actions in the future.

4) It leads to repentance.

B) WHAT IS REPENTANCE ?

Let’s see what it is not :

1) Regret

2) Sorrow.

3) Godly sorrow – this alone doesn’t bring change.

4) Penance – assigned works to make up for sins.

3 Greek words for repent :

METAMELLOMAI – verb – meta : after, change of mind.

Used of a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin but not necessarily change of heart.

Used of the repentance of Judas (Matt 27:3).

METANOEO, - verb 33X (to repent)

METANOIA – noun 20X (repentance)

VINE - lit., "to perceive afterwards"

meta, "after," implying "change," noeo, "to perceive.

"to change one’s mind or purpose," always, in the NT, involving a change for the better,

STRONG - To change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

THE LATE DR. MARTIN : Military term – about face.

Repentance involves :

1) TURING TO GOD :

VINE – In the N.T. the subject has reference to “repentance” from sin, and this change of mind involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God.”

EZEK 33:11 “Turn, Turn from your evil ways”.

2) MERCY

One can not comprehend repentance without also understanding the mercy of God.

3 CHANGE

Vs. 11 What earnestness, vindication, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, avenging of wrong.

Bakers Evangelical Dictionary :

The state implied by repentance always leads to a change of life.

The strange life of Ivan Osokin by Russian writer P.D. Ouspensky, published 1937.

It was a story of a man who wished to amend his mistakes by living his life over again.