God’s Will for Us: Giving Thanks in All Circumstances

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

I'm thankful for you, thankful for the fact that you're able to

come here today and to hear and heed the word of God.

And we have a lot of reasons to be thankful here at our church.

We have a lot of reasons to be thankful here as believers in this

country.

We have a lot of reasons to be thankful, just in general, what God

has given us in our lives.

And I encourage you this week to take some time to count your blessings,

take some time, maybe even to write down on a piece of paper or

type out on a computer all the things that you can give God thanks

for.

You could talk about your family, you could talk about your

health, you could talk about your job, you could talk about your

church family, you could talk about your friends.

You could list that list over and over and over again throughout

the day, and you probably could keep listing things.

But I will say that one of the things that we do sometimes struggle

with in the area of giving thanks is giving thanks for the things

that aren't so easy to go through.

Right?

The Bible does say.

And if you have your Bible here this morning, we're going to

go to a couple different passages before we get to our main

text.

But in First Thessalonians, chapter 5, the Bible says something

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

that, you know, a lot of times we don't always follow because we're

thankful for some things.

We're thankful for portions of our life.

But the Bible says in 1st Thessalonians, chapter number 5,

verse number 18, in everything, give thanks.

Not necessarily for everything, but in everything.

And so sometimes it's difficult for us to give thanks for

things in our life or give thanks to God for who he is and what

he has done when things are not going the way that we expect

them to go.

So he says here in everything, give thanks.

And then there's this phrase that comes in the second part of

the verse that a lot of times we don't quote.

It says, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning

you, meaning if you want to follow God's will, part of that is

giving thanks in everything.

It's his will that you do that.

I know there's a lot of Christians, hopefully most Christians,

all Christians would say, hey, you know what?

I want to follow the will of God in my life.

I want to follow God's plan.

I want to walk in his steps.

I want him to guide me.

Well, one of the things that we can see here very clearly is that

it is God's will that we give thanks in everything, in the good

times and in the not so good times, in the easy times and in the

difficult times.

And you say, well, what does that mean for me today?

Okay, what are you trying to get accomplished here?

What are you trying to say?

Well, in Second Peter, chapter three, Second Peter, chapter three,

verse nine, this is where we started last week, and we're going

to pick it up this week.

It says that the Lord here, in this case, we know that this is the

will of God.

He says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men

count slackness, but is long suffering toward us Word not willing

that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And so what we see here is that it is God's will that everybody

comes to repentance.

And so if we use our reasoning and if we use scriptural context,

it is God's will that we give thanks in everything.

And it's God's will that we come to repentance.

And so therefore we should be thankful for repentance.

Well, what brings repentance?

Well, that's 2 Corinthians, chapter 7.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

That's what we've been talking about for the last few weeks.

So I want you to go to Second Corinthians, chapter seven.

That's our main text this morning, and we're going to look

at the results of repentance.

Last week we looked at the first result of repentance, and that

was revival, a renewed spirit, a renewed passion.

Paul comes at the beginning of Second Corinthians, chapter seven,

and he confronts the Corinthian church with the truth.

And what was the confrontation?

He says, look, you guys are living in sin.

You guys are not living the way that God would have you to live.

And so therefore, Paul starts this whole process in love with a

confrontation.

He speaks as the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15, Ephesians

Ephesians 4:15

4, 15.

He speaks the truth in love.

He says, I love you enough to tell you where you're wrong, and

I love you enough to tell you where you can change that.

And I love you enough to tell you that God is not pleased with

you living in this sin.

And so Paul starts with a Very difficult thing.

He starts with a confrontation.

But I'm gonna tell you here today, one of the things that we're

thankful for is friends and family in our life, if we love our

friends and if we love our family, we must tell them the truth,

the truth in love.

And so Paul confronts them at the beginning of chapter seven and

really throughout this whole book with, hey, look, there is an

issue in your life.

There are issues, plural in your life that you need to get fixed.

And so sometimes the reason why we don't confront people with

the truth is the fear of the repercussions of that, right?

If I tell the person the truth, the truth of God in their

life, they may or may not respond well.

They may actually get upset with me.

They may even get to a place in our life where they push us away.

But what we see here is actually the result of the confrontation

is not division.

We're actually going to see as we conclude this chapter today that

the confrontation led to godly sorrow, the godly sorrow led to repentance,

the repentance led to revival, the revival leads to refreshment,

and the refreshment leads to restoration.

So from the beginning of the chapter, we see confrontation, division,

issues with Paul.

Remember they.

What were they questioning about Paul?

They were questioning his motives.

They were like, Paul, why would you say one thing and do another?

You don't really love us.

They were questioning his love, they were questioning his devotion.

They were questioning the whole relationship that they had

with Paul.

And in so doing, they were actually questioning the truth that

Paul was preaching, right?

So they didn't trust Paul.

So they didn't trust the Gospel.

And so Paul could have said, well, you know what?

Corinthian Church, forget you.

I'm going to move on to the next place.

You guys are a lost cause.

But.

But what does he do?

Out of love for them and out of love for the Lord and out of love

for the Gospel.

Paul says, I'm going to confront this and press them on the

truth of the gospel, the truth of the word of God.

And so he does that.

And what was the Response?

Verse number 10.

For Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.

Not to be repented of, not to be turned away from, but the sorrow

of the world worketh death, meaning it was biblical sorrow that

brought the Corinthian Church to repentance.

It wasn't worldly sorrow.

It wasn't, sorry I got caught.

It was, I'm sorry that the truth of God has presented and I

fall short of the truth of God.

And if we're honest with ourselves at some point in our life,

we've all had to come to that point in our life where we understand

how much we have fallen short of the truth of God in our lives.

Repentance is a necessity.

Repentance is needed for salvation.

Repentance is needed for spiritual growth.

Repentance is needed for revival.

Repentance is needed for restoration.

Repentance is needed for every area of our life for God to work

because it brings us to a place of humility and brokenness.

The Bible says that God resists the pride.

He resists those that are resting in their pride.

And he gives grace to the humble.

It takes us to a place in our life where we come to repentance,

that we place ourselves in the trust of God to change us and to

move us and to get us to a place in our life where we need to

be.

And so Paul says, I'm thankful for the godly sorrow because why

it worked.

Repentance.

And what did that repentance do?

Well, we see in verse number 11, it brought revival.

If we want revival, we have to have repentance.

Revival is new life.

Now we have to go back because some of you might not have been here

last week.

What is repentance?

Repentance is literally turning away from something and turning

to something else.

Repentance is not perfection.

Repentance is.

I'm walking this way and I'm turning and about face and going

somewhere else.

We emphasized this last week.

Repentance is not just turning away from sin, but it's turning away

from sin and turning to God.

A lot of people can try to turn over a new leaf in their life.

A lot of people can say, I'm tired of this.

I'm tired of the results of this sin.

So I'm just going to try to fix that, folks.

It's not just turning away from sin.

It's turning away from sin and turning to God, turning to his satisfaction,

to his revival, to his relief, to his restoration.

And so we see in verse number 11, the revival.

There he says before, behold the self.

Same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort being biblical

sorrow brought you to repentance.

He says, what carefulness it wrought in you.

That phrase there, what carefulness essentially means this.

It's this idea of diligence.

It's the idea of having a renewed passion for the things of

God.

So he says, what carefulness it wrought in you, what clearing

of yourselves, Meaning it brought them a clear conscience.

It Brought them that.

You could phrase it this way.

That burden was lifted.

I don't know if any of you have experienced that moment when

there's revival and repentance in your heart.

And that burden of that sin, that burden of that guilt falls away

at the foot of the cross.

That is an amazing feeling.

But more than just that feeling, it's an amazing truth that

God can remove all of that guilt from our hearts.

Folks, as Christians, we should not be walking in guilt.

The Bible says In Romans, chapter 8, there is therefore now

Romans 8 · chapter mention

no condemnation to those that believe in Jesus, to those that are

walking in the truth of Jesus Christ.

And so as Christians, sometimes we confuse guilt and conviction.

Conviction is a good thing, and we're going to talk about that.

That conviction is something that we should be thankful for.

Guilt is not a good thing.

Condemnation is not a good thing.

Condemnation is what falls upon those that are outside of the

faith of Jesus Christ.

We as Christians no longer have to bear that condemnation in

our life because Jesus Christ has paid that price.

And so what we can be thankful for is the conviction.

See, I started out with saying there are some things that we're

comfortable with being thankful for, and there's things

that we're not comfortable with being thankful for.

One of the things that I struggle with being thankful for

is conviction.

But I'm gonna tell you, one of the greatest things that God can

bring us in our life is conviction.

And we should be thankful for that.

We should be thankful for the fact that God works in our heart,

because in conviction always comes the path to restoration.

You understand that, right?

God doesn't just condemn us in our sin.

He says, this is what's wrong and this is how you fix it.

That's the beauty of conviction.

Conviction always leaves us with hope.

Condemnation leaves us with no hope, leaves us with judgment.

And so the Bible says here in this case, that when we get to that

clearing in our lives, that conviction is something that we celebrate.

Now, most of us are not going to sit around the Thanksgiving table

with our turkey and go, I'm thankful for God's conviction in

my life.

The truth is, is that maybe we should more often say, lord, thank

you for pricking my heart.

Thank you for cutting my heart and showing me where I need to change

so that I can be the person that Jesus wants me to be, so that

I can be the Father that God wants me to be, so that I can be

the Christian that God wants me to be.

And so, so many times, we don't celebrate the conviction.

We celebrate the Comfort which the comfort comes.

But the conviction had to come here in verse number 10.

Before we get to the comfort.

We're gonna see that the comfort comes through all of this.

But there is great conviction.

He says, clearing of yourselves.

What indignation.

That's hatred for sin.

That's repentance.

That's one of the definitions of repentance.

I hate this sin in my life.

I gotta get rid of that in my life.

What indignation?

Yay.

What fear?

That's the fear of God.

So one of the elements of revival is the fear of God in our

lives, in a healthy respect for God in our life.

The moment we lose that healthy respect for God is the moment

that we fall back into that trap of sin and division and fleshly

desires.

So fear of God, yea, what zeal.

He's describing someone who's revived in Jesus Christ.

He says, what zeal you have, what passion you have, what fire

is in your heart, and what revenge.

Now, revenge is a.

Is a word that sometimes we think, well, what is he talking about

here?

Is he talking about you got revenge on someone that sinned against

you?

No, he's talking about really in this case, what.

The way that you could say it is this vindication.

God vindicates you, so it's God's revenge in your life.

God is vindicating everything that has been done in your life,

whether it be wrong, whether it be the wrong that you have done,

wrongs that others have done to you.

He's vindicating you.

And so ultimately, that's revival and all things ye have approved

yourselves to be clear in this matter, standing clear before God,

that is repentance, that is revival.

And so how did this happen?

Started with the confrontation, and it went to conviction,

then it went to comfort.

There's the godly sorrow that worked.

Repentance, repentance, revival.

And what we're going to talk about here for the most of our time

here today would be after the revival, what was the result of that?

Well, the result of the revival was, as we're going to see

here in verse number 12 and 13, it's relief, it's comfortable.

And so we're gonna go ahead and pray and I wanna talk to you

today about the results of revival.

And that is relief and restoration.

Let's go ahead and pray and then we'll jump right in.

Lord, I thank you for this time and thank you for this opportunity

to look into your word.

Thank you for this opportunity to see that we can be thankful for

conviction, that we can Be thankful for repentance, that we

can be thankful for the fact that you work in our lives as a God

who cares about us and a God who can change us.

And that can move us to a place of the truth, that can move

us to a place of transformation in our life and, Lord,

a place of restoration.

Lord, we're thankful for the fact that we no longer have to walk

as those who are lost, but we can walk with those who have hope

in the light of Jesus Christ.

Lord, I pray that you convict us today.

If need be, comfort us where need be.

Lord, help us to see you clearly in a place of repentance

this morning.

So, Lord, we thank you and we love you, removing distractions from

our minds and from our hearts and allow us to see you clearly this

morning.

In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

Remember, what Paul is talking about here is he's talking about

the result that happened after Titus went and reported to him what's

going on at the Corinthian Church.

Paul is talking about where he was in Macedonia.

Titus, a fellow that's working with Paul as a minister, went to

the Corinthian Church with the letter that Paul wrote about the

confrontation.

He's returning back, Titus is returning back to Paul and giving

him a report.

So this is Paul's results.

This is his reaction to the report that was given to him by Titus.

And so he says, wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it

not for his cause of the one who did wrong.

So Paul's like, I didn't take that side.

I didn't take the side of the one who had suffered the wrong.

But I came to you in the sight of God so that the sight of God might

appear unto you.

So he said, I came for your sake.

I came with you with this confrontation for the betterment

of your spiritual life.

It wasn't for my good.

It wasn't for his good.

It wasn't for his good.

It was for the good of the Lord working in your life.

And so he says in verse 13, this is our main text, he says, therefore

we.

Paul talks about him and his company were comforted in your comfort.

So there's comfort that is given by God to the Corinthian Church

through their conviction and through their repentance.

And so therefore we see that God comforts the Corinthian Church,

the Corinthian Church and their comfort comforts Paul and his

folks there.

What a beautiful thing that is.

With conviction comes the comfort.

With repentance comes relief.

Folks, if you're looking for relief.

It's not just in working harder.

If you're looking for comfort, it's not just in ignoring the problem

around you.

The comfort and the relief comes through addressing the truth

of God and addressing the conviction that comes to our life.

And I'm gonna tell you, folks, if you're like, I don't feel conviction

in my life.

I don't ever feel wrong.

I feel like I can do what I want to do.

Folks, that is a warning sign that the Holy Spirit is not guiding

your life.

Now, it's not my judge to tell you whether or not you're saved or

not saved.

But what I am saying is, if you say, well, I don't feel conviction

at all when I read the Word of God, that's a big red flag.

Because all of us, as we read the truth of Scripture, as we see

the perfection of God through the words of Scripture, we must see

how short we fall when it comes to our life and our flaws.

And so God is always working on a Christian.

You ever.

You know, in Delaware, we see this all the time.

Road work, right?

Construction ahead, under construction.

You see those signs all the time.

That should be what a Christian wears on their chest.

All the time I'm under construction, God's still working

on me.

Work in progress.

Paul said that.

You know, think about what he said in Philippians.

He's like, I have not attained.

I've not gotten to where I need to go.

Folks, if we all get to a place in our life where we say, you

know what?

I'm good.

I don't need anyone telling me that I need to change.

I don't need any change in my life.

That's a dangerous place to be because that is a place characterized

by pride and not humility.

And so we need that godly sorrow to bring us to a place of

repentance, to see that we need to continue to change in our

life for the cause of the Gospel.

And the change comes through the conviction of the Spirit.

So he says, therefore we were comforted in your comfort.

Yea, and exceedingly, the more joyed we were for the joy of Titus.

We see that Titus found joy in seeing the Corinthian Church change.

And therefore Paul saw the joy of Titus.

And in Paul experiencing the joy of Titus, Paul was able to share

that joy back with the Corinthian Church.

And so the relief comes in a couple of different areas.

Comfort and joy.

A life characterized by a life of repentance and conviction is a

life characterized by comfort and joy.

We would actually think it's the opposite.

The more conviction we have, the less joy we have.

But it's actually the opposite.

You want to see a joyful Christian?

A joyful Christian is a Christian who realizes that he needs

Jesus Christ as a savior, that he needs Jesus Christ to change his

life.

And he has the joy in knowing that that is a.

Is a.

Not just a possibility, but it's a guarantee that God will change

us if we come to him in repentance.

The Bible says here that that brings joy.

Titus saw the joy from the Corinthian church which brought the

joy to Paul, which Paul brings the joy back to the Corinthians.

He says, there's comfort and joy in this relief.

So in repentance comes relief, and in this relief comes joy and

comfort.

Folks, should we be people characterized by joy?

The answer to that question is yes, we should be exuding joy in

our lives, the joy of the Lord, as the book of Nehemiah says,

is our strength.

What does Paul say in Philippians, chapter four, verse

four, rejoice in the Lord alway.

And again I say, rejoice.

So a Christian who is miserable, a Christian who has no

joy, is a Christian who is not resting in the truth of God, resting

in the conviction of God, resting in the humility that God

brings us through that repentance.

You would actually think it's the other way around.

Well, you know what?

I'm feeling good about what I'm doing, so I've got a lot of joy.

Folks, that's no joy.

That's a joy.

You know what's a black hole?

Black hole.

Everything that goes into it is just destroyed.

Like nothing can live there.

That's what happens, right?

When we live in pride.

We can't find the joy of the Lord.

And the joy of the Lord is our strength.

And so therefore, we can't find strength.

So ultimately, what happens here is a result of the repentance

of the Corinthian Church.

The result of them responding in repentance to the confrontation

is that they found comfort and joy.

Titus found comfort and joy.

Paul found comfort and joy.

And therefore, today we can learn that in our conviction, our

family can find comfort and joy, our church can find comfort

and joy, our community can find comfort and joy.

Our country can find comfort and joy.

Right?

We want to be the propagators of comfort and joy through Jesus

Christ.

Where did that start?

It started with the truth.

Truth in love.

And so, therefore, what we see here in this case is that Paul is

celebrating the truth and love.

He's celebrating the comfort and the relief and the joy.

He says here, because Titus was joyful, because his spirit was

refreshed by you all.

You could say refreshed or relief.

But in revival comes refreshment.

We all need spiritual refreshment in our life.

We all need to be renewed in the Spirit.

We all need to have that renewed passion for the cause of

the gospel.

How do we do that?

Well, it takes each and every one of us to come to a place of conviction

in our life, come to a place of the truth and say, lord, change.

Me and my change can affect other people's change.

And what we can see in our life is that we can bring refreshment

to other Christians by the change that we show, by the difference

in our lives.

Folks, we live our Christian life.

So.

So individually, it has been told to us in our Western society

that Christianity is an isolated thing.

This is your personal thing that you do in private.

Folks, that is the opposite of what the Bible says.

The decisions that we make affect those that are around us.

The decisions that I make for the Lord are going to affect those

around us.

Now, I don't have to answer for someone else's decisions, but

I do have to answer for the way that I influence others by my

decisions in my life.

Because the Corinthian church was willing to take the word of confrontation

and allow that conviction to change them.

Through godly sorrow and repentance, they were able to influence

Titus.

Titus was able to influence Paul.

Paul was able to influence the Macedonians.

The Macedonians were able to influence Paul again through giving,

which we're going to talk about in the next chapter.

And then Paul comes around and uses the Macedonians who were helped

by Paul and challenges the Corinthians with the Macedonians

good life.

You see, it's just a big circle.

And so what I would tell you is this.

There's gonna be times in your life where you need the comfort of

others in the church.

There's gonna be times in your life where you need to comfort others

in the church.

You don't go, well, they didn't comfort me.

So I'm not gonna comfort them.

No, I'm gonna comfort them.

Because you know what the supernatural thing that's gonna happen

is that eventually when I need that comfort, God's gonna work through

somebody else and work that into my life.

It's an idea of thankfulness.

It's that attitude of gratitude that we should all live

with in our lives.

And so we get to this place where he says, thank you, Lord, for

the refreshment.

Thank you, Lord, for the repentance.

Thank you, Lord, for the revival.

Then we see more in verse 14.

He says, for if I have boasted anything to him of you, meaning if

I have said anything good about you to Titus, he's talking

to the Corinthian Church.

He said, I've said some good things about you to Titus.

Now you gotta think about Titus position.

Titus has only heard of the negative things about the Corinthian

Church.

He's only heard what they're doing to Paul in the accusations

and evil.

And he's heard about what's happened in First Corinthians, about

all the sin that's there.

Titus probably was pretty scared to go and bring that letter

to the Corinthians.

Paul says, no, they're good people.

They just got some issues, okay?

Titus is like, I don't know.

And Paul says, no, they've got good attributes.

He says, I've boasted in things, for I've boasted anything

to him of you.

I am not ashamed.

He says, I haven't.

I'm not ashamed of what I've said about you.

There's good things to be said about you.

You have a lot of spiritual gifts.

You have a lot of blessings in your midst, and you're good people

in the cause of the Gospel.

He says, but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so,

our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.

Meaning.

That's a hard way to say it.

But what he's saying is this says some good things about you.

And the way that you responded to the truth validated those good

things about you.

And so what he's saying here is this.

I want to speak life into your life.

I want to say good things about you.

Now, I think there's a lesson to be learned about this with Paul

as well.

He's doing this to people that are against him right now.

Now, how many of you would say, okay, I'm gonna say good things

and continue to say good things about people that are saying

bad things about me.

Most of you are like, no way they say one bad thing about me.

I'm not gonna say anything good about them.

They.

They've lost credibility in my life.

Well, that might be justified in our way of doing things, but how

can we get to a place of restoration in someone's life?

How can we have them restored back to the truth of the Gospel?

How can we have them restored back to our fellowship if we just

discredit everything about them, right?

It's not an enemy that we see.

It's someone that we can speak truth into.

So what Paul says here is, hey, I still have concern for you.

I still have love for you.

I still want to tell you good things about what you are in Christ.

And so what does he say here?

He says, I am not ashamed of the things that I've said because

our boasting was made true.

You validated those good things in the way that you responded

to Titus, verse 15.

And his inward affection, talking about Titus is more abundant

towards you, meaning this has helped Titus grow in his love for

you.

This has helped him grow in his understanding of how he can have

grace with other people.

And so his inward affection is more abundant towards you, whilst

he remembered the obedience of you all.

So you actually see here that the Corinthians obedience affects

Titus life.

Right.

Titus is renewed in his love for the Corinthians and for other

Christians and for the Lord by seeing the obedience of the Corinthian

church.

Your obedience to the Lord matters, your faithfulness to the

Lord matters, the way that you respond to the preaching and the

reading and the study of the Word matters, because it can affect

those around you.

And so what we see here is that the Corinthian Church, though

they had a lot of flaws in their repentance and their revival,

can be used to minister to a minister.

Right?

Titus is a minister.

Titus is renewed by these Corinthian lay people, serving God,

obeying God, and ultimately that affects him to the core.

He says here that the obedience of you all, how with fear

and trembling, ye received him.

Now, Titus brought this message from Paul, and the Corinthians

could have responded in many different ways, but what did they

do?

They responded here with fear and trembling.

That's.

That's speaking of brokenness.

That's speaking of their humility.

And so therefore, they received the Word of God properly.

And I would encourage you to receive the Word of God properly

in your life.

One of the things that I do in difficulty sometimes is hear the

Word of God, especially when it convicts me, when it cuts me.

It's easy to build that shell around us to say, you know what?

I don't want to hear that.

And most of you wouldn't do this.

But sometimes, figuratively, what we do is we stick our fingers

in our ears and go, I just don't want to hear it.

If I don't retain this, I'm not responsible.

But the truth is that when the Word of God is preached or when the

word of God is taught, or when you study the word of God yourselves

and something jumps off the page, it's doing that for a reason.

You ever had a preacher preach and you thought that he was preaching

to you that day?

I've been there.

I remember there was a preacher that was preaching.

It was actually the service that I trusted in the Lord in, and

he was preaching, and I was sitting there.

I was 15 years old.

And I'm like, oh, man.

My parents must have called this guy before the service, because

he knows everything about my life.

He's exactly describing me.

And so I tried to reject it for a few minutes.

I was like, you know what?

No, I don't want to hear this.

But the moment I said, you know what?

Okay, Lord, you're speaking to me, and I submitted to that.

There was this miraculous thing that happened in the concept

that the Holy Spirit was speaking to me.

And I encourage you to think about that.

I'm not saying that, you know, I don't know anything about.

If I've ever been up here and I've said something that you're like,

man, that's me.

I don't know.

Okay.

I don't sit there in the week and think about different people.

I don't sit there and plan my sermons out.

You know, that expositorily, we just preach through passages of

scripture.

But if something in scripture is speaking to you, that is there

for a purpose to respond.

And what we can see here in this case is that Titus brings them

the Word from Paul, ultimately from God.

And how did they respond?

Not with pride, not with arrogance, not with a lack of concern.

What does it say here?

They were.

They received it with fear and trembling.

That's how we have to see it.

Now, you're gonna have different speakers come up.

You're gonna have me come up here.

You're gonna have Pastor John come up here.

You might have Pastor Carlos speaking.

You might have a preacher that you listen to online.

It's not fear and trembling from that person, because sometimes

different people can be a little bit more intimidating.

Like if someone gets up here with a booming voice, or they run

up and down the aisles and they shake the Bible in your face,

and you go, man, maybe I am a little bit fearful this guy's gonna

hurt me.

It's not fearing and trembling over the person that's speaking.

It's fearing and trembling of the source of that message, and that

is God.

So when the word of God is preached and it's preached clearly,

and it's Preached from the truth of Scripture.

That is literally God speaking to his people.

In the Old Testament, it looked like this.

The prophet would come and he would say, thus saith the Lord.

And God would give the prophet the truth that he needed to preach.

Nowadays, we have the revealed prophecy of God, the revealed word

of God right here.

Peter says that we have a more sure word of prophecy.

And he's talking about the.

You know, Peter, you guys know the story.

Peter, James and John go out to the mount of Transfiguration,

and Jesus reveals himself in his truest form before Peter, James

and John.

And what happens?

Peter says, we want to stay here.

We want to build.

We never want to leave this mount.

And then later on, Peter says, hey, he's describing that process.

The voice of God is heard audibly.

The voice of God the Father is heard audibly.

And we would think, well, man, none of us have experienced anything

like that.

And what does Peter say?

He says, you have a more sure word of prophecy in the Scriptures.

That's amazing.

It's amazing the fact that we have the word of God given to us.

So when the word of God is presented, never see it as an agenda

of a pastor, an agenda of a teacher.

See it as the word of God being spoken to you.

And when you do that, and you receive it in fear and trembling,

it brings us to a place.

What does it say here in verse 16?

I rejoice, therefore, that I have confidence in you in all things.

What happens here?

Paul says, I haven't lost my confidence in you as my fellow brothers

and sisters in Christ.

That is restoration.

Okay?

Restoration is when two parties can come together and say,

even though there's been hardship, even though there's been

things said, even though sins have been committed, we can come

together and we can trust each other in the cause of the gospel.

That is beautiful restoration.

Because what's happened here is that we have people that at every

point in their ministry have fallen short, right?

The Corinthian church have fallen short.

I mean, if you go back to 1 Corinthians, they were doing pagan

acts in the temple.

They had people within the church that they had to separate

from because of their public sin.

They were condemning Paul and his motives.

They were condemning the gospel.

But we can see at the end of verse 16 that even though they did

all of those things, there can still be restoration between Paul

and between the church at Corinth because of the repentance.

Restoration comes from both parties submitting to Jesus Christ,

both parties coming and submitting themselves to the power

of God and saying, hey, you know what?

It's not me versus you.

It's not a winner or a loser.

It's we come back in repentance before God.

And in that repentance, we fall broken and humble for him and

say, you know what?

We both must receive each other because God received us in

our sin as well.

And I would encourage you to think about that in your own life.

This is hard.

This is the hardest thing to do in the Christian walk, is to have

forgiveness and restoration with someone who has harmed you or

wronged you.

I mean, maybe not.

Maybe you say there's other things that are more difficult.

I'm gonna tell you one of the hardest things that I've ever experienced

in my life is being able to see someone through the eyes of God

and not through the eyes of my offense.

Okay?

That is the hardest thing, because we have an ego.

We have all the teachings of the world in our brain that says

if someone wrongs you, you wrong them back.

Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.

They don't deserve forgiveness.

They don't deserve grace.

Paul could have said that, and none of us would have batted an eye

if he said, the Corinthian Church doesn't deserve me, I'm gone.

But no, what does he do?

He comes back.

He comes back and loves them enough to tell them the truth, risking

their cause.

By the way, restoration doesn't always happen because in

restoration, two parties have to come to repentance.

Both parties have to come to Christ.

Let's say, for example, someone comes in here as I'm preaching,

and they walk right up to the front, and hopefully the security

would notice that.

And he comes up to me, and I think he's gonna give me a hug.

He's walking up, and he comes up, and he just clocks me one right

in the face.

Knocks me out right here, and I fall down, okay?

And he walks out.

And I could say all day, man, I forgive you.

I want to be restored to you.

I want you to come back into the church and be a part of us.

But if that person goes, well, I don't want to be a part of this

church.

I don't want to be restored to you.

I don't think what I did is wrong, folks.

You see how that restoration can happen right now?

One side can be forbearing, meaning I'm offering grace, I'm offering

forgiveness.

I'm offering all these things.

And we have the responsibility as an offended party to do that,

to tell them the truth.

And now what I would need to do is I would need to go to him one

on one and go, hey, brother, you punching me in the face in front

of the church really wasn't a cool thing to do.

Please don't do that ever again, okay?

It offended me in many ways, but if I've done my part in everything

and said, I forgive you, I forbear, you know, and then there's

that concept of them coming back.

So I say all that to say this.

This doesn't always work out.

The Bible does say, live peaceably with all men if possible.

And so it doesn't always come to pass.

But when two parties come in repentance and in the conviction

and say, you know what, we need to get this right, we need to

overlook these differences, and we need to come to a place in

our life where we show love and grace to each other because we're

on the same team, that's when true restoration happens.

And I believe even though the church at Corinth isn't perfect by

any stretch of the imagination in scripture, this is where I do

see Paul saying, hey, we've got restoration.

I'm here for you.

I'm committed, and I trust you.

I rejoice, therefore, that I have confidence in you in all things.

I don't think Paul is being sarcastic here.

That sounds like something maybe that could be sarcastic.

Like, you've given me no reason to have confidence in you,

but I have confidence in you completely.

No, I don't think he's being sarcastic.

I think he's trying to encourage the Corinthians, showing

them that he is convinced that their repentance is genuine and that

they can work together.

And so by lifting them up, by exhorting them, by edifying them,

he's able to continue this path to restoration.

And so this is an example.

This is an example for all of us.

And so at the end of this chapter, Paul encourages the Corinthian

Christians.

And the real reason for this restoration is their repentance.

The real reason for this refreshment is repentance.

And so all throughout this chapter, we see how concerned Paul

was about the relationship with the Corinthian Christians.

He didn't just discredit them.

And so Paul's relationship with God affected his relationship

with the people that he's ministering to.

And Paul's relationship with God and his relationship with the

people brought him to a place to speak the truth in love.

And then the Corinthian Church responded to that truth with repentance,

revival, refreshment, restoration, folks.

If we want restoration, it has to start with the truth.

It has to go through revival.

But it starts with that repentance.

Truth reveals the repentance.

Truth reveals the turn.

And then we get to the point where the godly sorrow sustains the

shift.

And ultimately true revival brings.

Excuse me, true repentance brings revival, refreshment and restoration,

man.

You know what?

Some of us in our life need that restoration with people that

have wronged us.

Some of us have been on the side of being the ones that have

wronged other people.

And we need to go back in humility and brokenness and say,

hey, I'm so sorry.

I need to get this right with you.

That doesn't happen outside of the power of God working in our lives,

folks.

This is a miraculous thing that happens.

This is a wonderful thing that happens.

Have I been perfect in this as a pastor?

Of course I have not been perfect.

Who is perfect in these things?

Well, we know who is perfect.

That's the Lord.

And we have to go back to him on that.

Think about all the examples of Jesus, right?

We could go through many.

Jesus is sitting there right before he goes to the cross.

He knows that there's one guy sitting at this table that's gonna

deny him.

It's the same guy that says, jesus, I'll die for you, Jesus.

I'll go anywhere with you, Jesus, I'll go to the ends of the

earth.

And Jesus goes, you're gonna deny me three times.

There's another guy in the room.

He's about to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

Yet what does Jesus do?

He doesn't say, hey, get out of here.

Forget you.

He gets down.

John 13 takes the form of a servant and washes their feet.

He washes all their feet.

And all of them are going to deny him.

Really.

Peter publicly denies him, but all of them run except for John the

Beloved.

But he shows that Jesus shows opportunities for us, that we can

exercise love in the midst of wrongdoing in our life.

Now, there's a lot to this.

We're not going to be able to handle all of this because there

is going to be time and a place in our life where there can't

be restoration.

How do we deal with that?

Well, that's coming in different passages of Scripture,

but what we see here is the ideal.

We see the ideal of Paul saying, I need to confront you with

something.

I need to confront you with the truth, the truth of the Word.

And then the Corinthian Church responding as it says, there with

fear and trembling, with humility that brought godly sorrow,

that brought repentance.

Repentance brought revival.

Revival brought refreshment.

And that refreshment brings restoration.

Folks, some of us need to be in a place of repentance.

Some of us need that place of refreshment.

Some of us need that place of restoration today.

And I would encourage you to think about that.

I would encourage you to pray about that.

Some of us are in the role of Paul.

We need to be the ones that are speaking the truth into people's

lives.

You know what?

Sometimes for me, this is embarrassing for a pastor to share,

but whatever, I have nothing to lose.

I sometimes will sacrifice the truth for grace because I don't want

to offend somebody.

Someone might come up to me and be like, hey, what do you think

about this?

And I really want to tell them, like, well, I think it's a

terrible decision that's going to ruin your life.

But then, because maybe of fear, it literally goes back to pride.

It goes back to pride.

I want the person to judge me.

I go, well, you know, I don't know if I would do that, but it could

work out, maybe.

And you're like, right.

So sometimes there's that struggle, that inner struggle that

we have where we don't want to offend so we won't tell them the

truth.

And sometimes people come.

My thing is this.

If someone comes and asks me for the truth, that's my gateway

to give them the truth.

Okay?

There's no more hesitancy on that.

If you really want to know the truth, I'm going to give you the

truth in love.

But there are going to be times when people don't come to ask

you for the truth.

That's the hard part.

And what Paul did is he says, I'm going to send this letter to

the Corinthian Church because I love them enough to tell them the

truth.

And this is hard because where does this go from judgment and, you

know, being, you know, the whole idea of plank in, you know,

speck in my brother's eye and plank in my own eye, right?

So there is that.

And Jesus teaches all about that.

Make sure you're right with God before you start going around

and telling people the truth.

But he's not saying you can't tell people the truth.

He's saying, just inspect your own life to make sure you're not

just living in disorder and then coming to people with issues.

But there is a time and a place in love to tell someone the

truth about Jesus Christ, even a saved person, right?

So, like, for example, if I had my children, I don't struggle

with telling my children the truth.

I don't sit there and worry about like, well, I'm going to offend

my son today by telling him that this is wrong.

I'm going to tell him the truth because I have an investment

in my son.

I have an investment in my family, right?

Because if my family breaks down, it's going to affect me completely,

right?

And so therefore, I don't struggle with telling my family the

truth.

So what do I have to see in that way?

I have to see it this way.

This is my church family.

And I don't want to see my family broken down.

I don't want to see my family get to a place because we're in this

together.

And so it's done in love, it's done sensitively, but it's done in

a way that brings someone to a place of where they have to respond

to the truth of the gospel.

The godly sorrow works repentance.

So that's the side of the one who needs to speak the truth.

But some of us maybe are on the other side.

Maybe some of us need to hear the truth.

And how we respond to that truth matters too, because the Corinthians

could have said, who are you, Paul?

Who are you?

You're the one that chose Macedonia over us.

And you told us you would be here, and you're not here.

Paul says, no, you need to receive this in truth.

You need to receive this in love.

And so some of us need to receive the truth in that love and

to receive it with humility and to receive it with godly sorrow

that brings forth repentance.

I've had people come to me and say, pastor, or maybe it's just Josh.

Maybe it's not someone in the church.

I've had other pastors come and say, hey, I think you're seeing

this from the wrong perspective.

You know what my flesh wants to do?

Well, you're not here, you're not around me.

You don't know what you're talking about.

But what do I need to do?

Well, wounds of a friend are a blessing.

If a friend comes up to me and tells me that there's something wrong

with what I'm doing, and I know that they're my godly friend,

I gotta say, hey, you know what?

There's some truth to that.

I need to listen to that.

If I have someone that's invested in my life and someone that

loves me and has proven their love to me.

And they come to me and they go, hey, you know what?

I see this going in your life a certain way, and I just want to

caution you, that's time for me to say they love me enough to

tell me that I need to listen to that.

And it's ultimately from the truth of God.

Maybe I'm sitting in a pew or I'm sitting in a chair and a preacher

gets up and preaches something from the Word.

And that cuts me deep.

What is my responsibility?

My responsibility is to receive that in humility and come

to a place of repentance in my life that is not easy, but it's biblical.

And for some of us, it's been a long time since we've wrestled

with conviction and repentance.

We've been living our lives the way that we want to live it,

and when something comes that makes us feel uncomfortable, we just

push it away.

Embrace.

Embrace conviction.

Be thankful for conviction.

Be thankful for when God speaks to you and changes your heart.

I encourage you to think about it from that perspective, because

we're all going to sit around the dinner table on Thursday and

say, I'm thankful for God's comfort.

The comfort does come, but the comfort sometimes comes through conviction.

And I would dare say that most of us are not naturally going to

say, well, I'm thankful for when God really convicted me in that

service.

Some of us might.

That's a great place to be, but it's that place of humility.

How are we going to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit?

If you're a Christian, there is conviction.

Okay?

The Bible does say that we can quench the spirit.

The Bible says that we can see our conscience.

But if you're walking in the spirit, there will be conviction.

I don't know about you, but when I study for my sermons throughout

the week, I'm riddled with conviction.

By the time I get up on Sunday morning, I'm like, I'm not even qualified

to preach this because I need to take, like three or four steps.

The preacher gets the first fruits right as I'm preparing.

Some of you like to cook on Thanksgiving.

How many of you are the cooks in your house on Thanksgiving?

How many of you cooks.

Be honest.

How many of you cooks take a little bit of a sample of what you're

cooking?

Okay?

Only also, only a few of you guys are telling the truth.

All right?

I'm just saying I'm up there.

I'm always like, if I'm cooking something, I'm already We

like to do a.

How many of you have ever seen a security charcuterie board?

Okay, okay.

By the time the charcuterie board is already.

Alicia's, like, working on it.

I'm not really the presenter of that.

She, like, gets it all fancy.

I've already eaten, like, half of the board before it's up there.

She's like, you're eating the supply here.

Come on.

So the truth is that sometimes when we are doing our own biblical

study in our own lives, by the time we get to somebody else, we

are already convicted with things, and we need to get that right

with God.

And so if you can take anything with you is the results

of repentance is revival.

It's refreshment, and then lastly, it's restoration.

Embrace, celebrate, give thanks to God not only for his comfort,

but for his truth and conviction.

It's not an easy message to preach, but nonetheless, it's an

important message to hear and to live and.

And to learn in our lives.

And so I encourage you here today.

It's not a big revolutionary truth.

All it is is this.

What is your response to the truth of God?

What is your response to conviction in your life?

Maybe you've been pushing away the conviction so much that you've

become desensitized to God working in your life.

You know, there was a time when I would hear a word or that

I would see something, that I would just.

I would literally turn my head, I would plug my ears.

I would run away from something.

But how many of us have gotten so accustomed to the things of this

world that when something wrong pops up in front of us and

the conviction of the Holy Spirit is trying to press on us,

we just reject that because.

Well, that's just silly.

It's like when I was.

I've used this analogy before.

It's like when we were in college, and the first few weeks

in there, I'm like, man, this guy's dorm stinks so bad.

Okay?

None of the guys, you know, we just.

It was just stinky in there.

And after two or three weeks, I'm like, man, the stench went away.

Then when my.

When people would come and visit, they'd be like, wow, this

your room stinks.

It's like, what?

No, it says so.

We get so used to what we live in that the stench eventually goes

away.

Let's not lose the sensitivity.

You want to see.

You want to see awesome Sensitivity to conviction of the

spirit.

Deal with, like, a child who's just been saved.

They'll keep you straight.

My Kids, keep me straight.

Dad, that's not a word that we should say.

Dad.

That's not a place we should be.

Dad, should we be reading this?

Dad?

It's like, wow, okay, you know what?

There's a lot of preaching to that.

And for us, you know, I think sometimes the Bible does say we need

to come back as little children, like, have the sensitivity

to that.

Now, I'm not saying we have to live under a rock.

I'm not saying that we have to live sheltered lives, but it is saying

we need to live differently.

And that conviction of the Spirit, when a preacher gets up and

preaches or a teacher is teaching, or you're in your own spiritual

study or you're listening to a podcast and something's there, don't

reject that move in the Spirit.

And so I would encourage you to do that.

Let's go ahead.

If you're able to just stand with me.

Every head bowed, every eye closed as the music plays.

This morning, we have an opportunity to respond to the preaching

of the Word here today.

How many of you said, you know what?

It's been a while since there's been repentance in my life.

A marked repentance, a marked change in my direction.

Folks, I would encourage you, if there has been a time in your

life where you've been repentant, but now it's been a while,

I encourage you to come there, come back to that place of repentance

in your life.

Maybe for some of you, say, you know what?

I've been seeking relief in my life from these sins, refreshment

from these issues of this world.

You know what?

Refreshment and repentance and revitalization only comes through

that broken, humbled spirit.

So you have that revival, you have that refreshment, and maybe

some of you are seeking that restoration.

Maybe it's with a family member, maybe it's with a friend,

I don't know.

But that restoration is only going to come through both sides,

being repentantly, falling before God and seeking after his

will.

Maybe you're the one that's done the offense.

Maybe you've been the one who has been offended.

But seek restoration through repentance.

So easy to live a life of bitterness.

It's so easy to live a life of ingratitude.

But let's be thankful.

Maybe it's just this.

Maybe it's just I want to learn how to be thankful for the

difficult things in my life.

Difficult for the conviction.

It's difficult to be convicted.

But am I willing to give thanks in the difficulty of conviction?

Or am I pushing that aside and only thanking God for the things

that I like in my life?

None of us like the pain of conviction, but all of us should

embrace the comfort that comes with that change, that comes through

conviction in our life.

Let the Lord speak to you.

Let the Lord change you.

Let the Lord guide you and encourage you to think about that

here this week in the time of giving thanks.

Give thanks to the Lord for the conviction of the spirit, the

convictor and the comforter.

He's the convictor and the comforter.

Embrace those elements of our Savior.

Lord, I pray that you'd be, in this time of invitation, working

hearts and lives.

Lord, if there's someone here today that has for their whole life

tried to earn work, get to a place of salvation.

Lord, I pray that today can be the day of salvation.

Today can be the day of conviction that leads to that repentance.

Lord, I pray that that godly sorrow of their sin can get to a

place in their life where they can see that the only remedy to sin,

the only comfort to sin, the only relief to sin, the only restoration

to God, the greatest lover of our souls, is found through biblical

repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

But I pray that we can all come to you today in that faith and

repentance.

But Lord, I pray that if there's someone here who has not

found you a Savior, that today can be the day of salvation.

Lord, we thank you for your love and your grace.

In Jesus name, Amen.

As the music plays, if you need to come forward, we've got some

folks up here with Bibles that can show you in the word of God what

it means to come to know him in faith.

But maybe you just need to come forward and thank him for that

conviction in your life.

I encourage you to do that here today.

Give him praise.

Give him thanks for everything that he has done.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at joshmasaro at middletownbaptistchurch.

Com.

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along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.