SMILEY RELIGION: “God wants me to be happy.”
- 2 Corinthians 7:8.
- Today so many presume that God’s job is to make them happy. The only way they think about God is that He is there to answer our prayers and bring good things into our lives.
- Biblical ideas like carrying your cross, losing your life, or denying yourself would be greeted with (at best) confusion and (at worst) derision. The confusion would show on the perplexed face of the person completely lost concerning why God would want anyone to do any of those things. The derision would come from those adamantly denouncing that anything other than their personal happiness would be a worthy life goal.
- Whatever the reason, there are many today who are certain that their happiness is the ultimate goal of life and that God should help them achieve it.
- I should note that in opposing this I am not saying that God wants us to be miserable all the time. Rather, that there might be something other than our personal happiness that should be the highest goal of our lives.
- Although Paul didn’t believe the shallow idea that personal happiness should be our ultimate goal, even he struggled with the sorrow that we’re going to focus on this morning.
- In v. 8, Paul notes that he caused the Corinthians sorrow. He says he doesn’t regret it, but then acknowledges that he did regret it for a while. That speaks to the fact that sorrow and regret are difficult things to handle even in the best of circumstances. It evokes split decisions and divided minds.
WHAT ABOUT SORROW? Sorrow is necessarily because we’ve fallen short.
- 2 Corinthians 7:9.
- No doubt there are many here who are surprised by the first point because they presumed that God had nothing higher to shoot for than their personal happiness. Well, if that statement hurt you, then this second statement is going to hurt even worse.
- Here it is: sorrow is an important part of each of our lives. Now, I don’t just mean sorrow because we’re going to a funeral. No, I mean sorrow over things that we’ve done and ways that we’ve lived.
- I told you that you wouldn’t like it.
- We want to get into the two kinds of sorrow in a minute, but let’s just talk about sorrow in general for a minute.
- Why is sorrow necessary? Because we’ve fallen short.
- What do I mean by that? That we’ve sinned. That we’ve done things that are wrong. That we’ve said things that are wrong. That we’ve thought things that are wrong.
- I know that most wink at sin today. I know we come with endless excuses to justify our questionable actions. But sin is wrong. And having done what is wrong should cause us sorrow.
- We don’t want to face it, but the proper response to our sin is to feel sorrow. Thankfully it’s not the whole process and it’s not where we are supposed to end up, but it is where we are to start.
- So before we get to the two approaches to sorrow, let me stop and ask an introductory question: when was the last time you were sorry about something you did? Sorrowful for your sin? Does it happen regularly?
TWO APPROACHES:
1. “Worldly sorrow brings death.”
- 2 Corinthians 7:10b.
- Let’s start with the second half of v. 10 and then we’ll work our way back.
- We are told that “worldly sorrow brings death.” How does that happen?
- Let’s start with the way the world responds to sorrow. They try to minimize it. They try to justify it. They try to make themselves feel better, but when they think about it, it’s still there.
- Others are unable to minimize it. Their sin gnaws at them but they have no remedy available that would take away their sin. And so they either get overwhelmed by their sin (and end up drinking or doing something else to numb the pain) or they circle back around to trying to minimize it.
- So both of the options are poor.
- So when someone does feel sorrow and tries to handle it in a worldly way, the result is death. As just stated, they either end up trying to numb the pain or trying the talk themselves into believing it’s not a big deal.
- If they numb the pain, then they end up with a disaster of a life. That is, death.
- If they try to minimize it, then they ignore the moral cancer within them and pretend like everything is ok. The result there too is death.
2. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.”
- 2 Corinthians 7:10a.
- Let’s look instead at the rich statement that Paul makes about godly sorrow in v. 10. We’ll take it in parts.
- “Godly sorrow . . .”
- Yes, there are times when God wants us to sorrowful. One of those is when we are facing up to our sins. So there is such a thing as “godly sorrow.”
- God does not want us to be happy all the time. To do so requires us to be delusional. We will fall short and have to face up to that.
- “. . . brings repentance . . .”
- This is the first big difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. With worldly sorrow we try to minimize it or numb the pain. Why? Because we really don’t have a good other option. God has given us that other option. We need to be thankful He has!
- The other option is repentance. This, of course, is open to us through Jesus.
- Without Jesus, it’s not an option for us. We acknowledge that we’ve done something wrong. We have sorrow over our sins. We repent to God, acknowledging our guilt and asking for forgiveness.
- Many people don’t like the idea of repentance. They don’t like the thought of admitting guilt. But it’s the best road to freedom.
- “. . . that leads to salvation . . .”
- If the repentance here is from a non-Christian coming to Jesus, then the result is directly salvation. They are being saved by their repentance and belief in Jesus.
- If the repentance here is from a Christian, then they are already saved. In that case, what Paul is pointing us to by mentioning “salvation” is that we continue to be in right relationship with God.
- “. . . and leaves no regret.”
- Unlike the residue that both of the approaches to worldly sorrow leave you with, godly sorrow brings freedom and breakthrough. There is release from sin through Jesus. We are left with a clean conscience and no regret.
- This is ironic, in a way. When we try to push our sin away, we end up with it clinging it to us. When we embrace it, though, and admit our guilt, we end up with it being taken away.
- Points of comparison for the two approaches.
a. What they produce.
- It’s worth taking a moment to look at v. 11 and what godly sorrow produces.
- Now, we’ve already talked about v. 10 and the fact that worldly sorrow brings death. It brings regret that you can’t get rid of. It brings depression over your situation. It brings a desire to cover up your pain with something. In other words, it brings negative into your life.
- What about godly sorrow. Well, we’ve talked about what v. 10 says about godly sorrow, but Paul gives us a little more in v. 11. Let’s look at it.
- Unpack v. 11.
- Again, it’s striking how much better our situation ends with when we pursue godly sorrow.
b. Applying these truths.
- Let me apply these truths we’ve been talking about to two situations: for the non-Christian and for the Christian.
- First, the non-Christian.
- Let’s talk about the big issue: salvation.
- Will you continue pretending you’re a good person or admit to Jesus you’re a sinner? This, for many, is the thing that holds them back. They aren’t opposed to God, per se, but they don’t want to admit that they are a sinner. They don’t want to admit that they’ve done things wrong. They know they’ve done things wrong but they don’t want to admit that.
- What’s the result of doing this? You continue to lack peace. You continue to be worried about your soul. You leave service wishing you’d taken care of it but you didn’t. You want to be right with God but you aren’t. And, most importantly, you still are not saved – and that’s a dangerous spot to be in.
- Compare that to facing that moment head-on and admitting that you are a sinner. It’s not easy, but you know it’s true. You do it – and then you have relief and joy and salvation.
- Second, for the Christian.
- You have taken care of that initial repentance that brought you salvation, but you are also called to repent on a regular basis as you become aware of sin in your life. Sometimes we get negligent about that.
- Is there a sin that you know you’re committing, but you don’t want to admit it before God? Many of us do that regularly. What’s the result? We feel guilty, we have no victory, we regret our actions again and again. We are not pursuing godly sorrow.
- Why are you doing that? Just a minute ago when I was talking about a non-Christian repenting, you were thinking, “Why wouldn’t they do that?” And yet you refuse to repent about your sin. Why? You should know better.
WHAT JESUS' CROSS DOES: Jesus did not come to excuse our sins, but to forgive them.
- We’ve been all around this issue, but I want to close on this point because it’s so important.
- Jesus did not come to excuse our sins. He came to forgive them. What’s the distinction?
- Excusing sin is saying, “What you did wasn’t a big deal. Don’t worry about it. You’re excused.” That’s what many think about their own sin, but that’s not the way Jesus sees it.
- Forgiving sin is saying, “What you did is a big deal. You should be concerned about it. It is separating you from your God. But Jesus came and took the just penalty of your sin upon Himself and that has opened up the door for you to be forgiven. Needing to be forgiven means your sin is a big deal – big enough that it took the death of the only Son of God to pay for them. But He did that. Now, if you’re willing to admit that you need what Jesus did for you on the cross, He will apply it to your life.”
- They are two totally different things. It’s hard to imagine more diverse views of your sins.
- If you can be excused of your sin, then Jesus was a fool to die on the cross. He died for someone who didn’t need saving. But you can’t be excused of your sin. It’s too serious.
- So if you believe that Jesus died on the cross, be aware of what that means about you. It means that Jesus thought your sin needed forgiven, not excused. Now, will you pursue godly sorrow and that forgiveness.
