The Joy of True Repentance
Tom Shrader walks through 2 Corinthians 7, examining Paul's relationship with the Corinthian church and his joy upon learning they responded to his confrontation with genuine repentance. He draws a careful distinction between worldly sorrow, which is remorse over consequences, and godly sorrow, which produces lasting life change and restores the joy of salvation. He also addresses the responsibility Christians have to comfort one another in suffering, grounding that comfort in the Holy Spirit and the promises of God.
“A Christian must never leave off repenting, for I fear he never leaves off sinning.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 2 Corinthians
Recorded: 2003 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 42 min
Themes: repentance, joy, comfort, sorrow, forgiveness, sin, restoration, promises of god, struggling with guilt, dealing with sin, navigating conflict, feeling unworthy, pastor, mentor, new believer, returning to faith
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 7:1-16, 2 Corinthians 6:11, 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, 2 Corinthians 2:4, 2 Corinthians 1:3-8, Philippians 2:12, Philippians 1:6, 1 Timothy 1:12-15, Acts 7, Acts 8, John 14, 1 Corinthians 16:10-11
Theological Themes: sanctification, godly sorrow, soteriology, repentance theology, pneumatology, holy spirit, pastoral care, means of grace
Full Transcript
Living Out the Promises of God
Turn in your Bibles, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. We will look at all 16 verses today. If you are here on a regular basis, you know that is quite a bit, but I think you will see that we can handle it pretty easily. Paul is dealing, as he has really throughout 1 Corinthians and now into 2 Corinthians, with his relationship with this church. It has been, in a sense, a rocky relationship, because Paul has had the unwelcome but necessary pastoral and shepherd's task of confronting them with their sin.
This chapter has great application to us as a body and to you individually as we look at sin in our lives. How do we approach sin? What is our responsibility to those around us who are engaged in sin? What does repentance begin to look like? We will talk about all those topics this morning.
In chapter 7, verse 1, Paul writes: "Therefore having these promises." He has just talked about God saying, "I will dwell with them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be My people." This book is filled with promises made to the people of God, and those promises provide great encouragement, comfort, and stability in the midst of a world that is fluctuating and where circumstances change so quickly. So many of you have shared with me that you have become addicted to the news — that it is on all the time, and you are watching it — and that is just one segment of what is happening in one part of the world. There are things happening all over this planet that impact you and me, and things fluctuate. How do we find stability in the midst of that? It is the promises of God. It is the truth. It is knowing who He is and then living those promises, resting on them.
Our Responsibility to Cleanse Ourselves
Paul then says, "Let us cleanse ourselves." I want to stop for a moment on that phrase. The Greek verb indicates that this is something each Christian has to do — each Christian must do in their own life, on their own. I pause for this reason: we so frequently and fervently talk about the sovereignty of God, and we rightly uphold His sovereignty in all things, especially in salvation. But my fear is that we can talk so much about the sovereignty of God that we fail to understand our own responsibility, our duty, our efforts.
Scripture is clear. The commands are there: come, repent, knock, seek, find, labor, obey. "Let us cleanse ourselves." That is something you do through God's grace, God's Spirit, and God's power — but it is something that you do. It is your obedience. It is your response to what God has done in your life.
Paul says to cleanse ourselves from all defilement — some translations say "filthiness." It is the only time that word appears in the New Testament. In the Greek Old Testament, the word appears three times and speaks mostly of religious defilement: false gods, the sacrifices that accompany them, and unholy alliances. We are to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit. We are not to succumb to those fleshly desires, those appetites that so often run wild in a person's life. In fact, we are supposed to be able to look at one another and say, "You are pure and you are holy." Those are beautiful words in God's economy and God's vocabulary.
I think in our culture we tend to look down our nose at someone who is pure and holy. We do not even want to hold it up as an ideal because it seems too intimidating to the rest of the world — but that is the call you have. You are to cleanse yourself. You are to present your body as a living sacrifice.
Working Out What God Works In
Paul writes in Philippians 2:12: "So then, beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
I have had some bring that verse to me and say, "Look, right there — work out your salvation — earn your salvation." That is not what that verse says at all. What Paul is saying is this: because you are saved, because you have a personal relationship with Christ, because you have an intimate relationship with the Father, because you have become a child of God — that is what Scripture says. "But to as many as believed, they became children of God."
Now, if that is true — and we know it is — then it raises an interesting question. What were you before? If you became a child of God, what were you before that? You were a child of wrath. You were of your father the devil.
The Reality of Our Nature
We had a baby dedication at the eight o'clock service, and we have two more at eleven. There are always those wonderful moments — we had a little girl this morning, and there will be girls at eleven. They have their little dresses on, the little bow on the head, and they look so innocent and so beautiful. It is sometimes hard to remember that they are sinful little children. And it takes about eighteen months or so before we really begin to see that clearly.
They begin to speak right away, and what do they say? "No. Mine. Me." And then they begin to grab. Why do they do that? Why is it that you never had to teach your child to lie, but you did have to teach them to tell the truth? You never had to teach your child to hide something done wrong — you had to teach them to bear the truth. Why? Because they are children of wrath. They are your children, and they inherited from you that sin. We are sinners. That is a very important truth.
We believe we become children of God — but what were we before that? We were children of wrath. Now, Paul says in Philippians 2, we live in such a way that God puts in our heart a desire to please Him, the strength to please Him, and the will to please Him.
Sensitivity to Sin
The closer we get to Him, the more and more convicted we become of our own sin. J. Vernon McGee tells a magnificent story. He was pastoring a church, and there was a lady in this church in her nineties. One Monday morning he was there — a casual day, having taught on Sunday morning and Sunday night — when she called and said, "I need to see you right away." He said it was sort of his day off and asked if they could wait, but she said, "No, I need to see you. I have sinned so grievously. I have to talk to you this morning." He told her to come on over.
He hung up and his mind began to race. What could she have done? She was ninety. So she comes in, and he skips any pleasantries and goes right to the point — his curiosity is simply, what did you do? And she said, "Well, yesterday when I left church and I told you I liked your sermon, I didn't. I lied."
We look at that and say we do that all day long. "You look great. You sound great. You work hard. You're terrific." Lie, lie, lie, lie. It doesn't even occur to us. That is the mark of a godly person — someone whom God has made so sensitive to sin that the slightest transgression convicts them of their sinfulness.
So cleanse yourself. That is what he says to you and me. These are the promises you have. Now bring about this perfecting of holiness — perfecting carrying the idea of completeness, of finishing. Holiness is being separated from something; in this case, being separated from the filthiness and sin in the world. That is to be the way a Christian lives.
An Appeal to Open Their Hearts
Chapter 7, verse 2: "Make room for us in your hearts." This ought to take you back to chapter 6, verse 11, where Paul said, "Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is opened wide." Paul comes back again and again to this relationship he has with this church — a relationship that has endured some stress and strain, most of it caused by their sinful behavior and Paul's godly response in confronting that sin.
So he says, "Listen, make room for us in your hearts. Open your hearts to us. You know that we wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one." Paul is saying, you know we treated you fairly. We didn't treat anyone unjustly. We didn't injure anyone. We didn't cause anybody to fall into sin. We did not encourage any immoral behavior on your part. We were there for you. We served you. We didn't take advantage of you.
Paul is saying he has a clear conscience. He can stand before them with a clear conscience because everything he did was motivated by love for them. See verse 3: "I did not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together." Our hearts are knit together with you.
Paul's Past and the Power of Mercy
Now it is interesting that Paul can say his conscience is clear — that he wronged no one, corrupted no one, took advantage of no one — because that was not always the case in his life. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12, Paul writes this: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into service even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy and the grace of our Lord was more abundant with faith and love which was found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost of all." Some translations say he is the chief among sinners.
As you read Acts chapter 7 and Acts chapter 8, you get Luke's account of what an aggressive persecutor Paul was of that early church. On the Damascus Road, Paul isn't out seeking God. He is not looking for Christ. He is out looking for Christians to destroy. He already thought he was on God's team. He already thought he was a man of God, destroying what he saw as a cult — the Christian Church. But God converts him. God changes his heart.
And He can do that for you. If you are here today and you did not take communion, and you would acknowledge you are not a Christian, then you too are a blasphemer. You too are a child of wrath. You too are separated from God by your sin. But if you will repent, if you will believe, if you will come to Christ in repentance and faith, if you will acknowledge your sin and accept Christ — and Christ alone, not any church, not any religion, not any action you can perform — that is what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross: your salvation.
Come. That is all you need to do. Come. Talk to the person who invited you. Come and speak to one of the men or women who will be at the front of the worship center after the service and ask them, "What does it mean to be a Christian?" You will experience this forgiveness, and all of a sudden there is a sense of blamelessness in your life.
Confidence and Comfort in the Relationship
So Paul says, "Make room for us. I am not condemning you. Remember our time together. You cannot hold anything against us." Verse 4: "Great is my confidence in you." Paul has great confidence in them. Why? Because he knows the truth he will write a little later in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6: "For I am confident that He who began a good work in you will continue it till the day of Christ Jesus."
He has addressed these men and women as brothers and sisters. He has addressed them as Christians. So he knows that if indeed they are followers of Christ, God will work His power and His might and His majesty in their lives. "Great is my boasting on your behalf. I have laid it out there. I know we have problems. I know there is sin. I know there is difficulty. But I have boasted of you. I have hoped for you in spite of these difficulties. I am filled with comfort."
Joy and Comfort in the Midst of Affliction
Paul says there is joy in the midst of affliction, and that is God's promise and desire for you and me. It is not happiness. Joy is finding a sense of contentment in the midst of oftentimes very difficult circumstances, and that is found in Christ and Christ alone.
Then Paul speaks autobiographically in verses 5 through 16 of this relationship with the church at Corinth and his discovery, upon receiving a reconnaissance report from Titus, that the church is responding to his chastisement. Look at verse 5: "For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, fears within." Paul is saying that there continue to be quarrels, disputes, physical persecution, accusations, challenges to his authority, and questions about his teaching. But perhaps the greatest trial he faced was his concern and wonderment over this church and all the other churches.
The Greatest Suffering Paul Endured
Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Beginning in verse 24, Paul recounts a flyover view of his suffering. There are the lashes from the Jews, the beatings with rods, the stoning, all the endangerment and physical peril, and the labor to the point of exhaustion. So often when we try to paint a portrait of the suffering of Paul, we reference 2 Corinthians chapter 11 beginning at verse 24, but we stop at the end of verse 27.
The greatest suffering Paul endures may well be verse 28, where he says: "...apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of the concern for all the churches." What Paul has done is write a letter to the church at Corinth confronting them over their sin. We have no record of this letter — it is not 1 Corinthians and it is not 2 Corinthians. It is referred to often as the severe letter.
After writing it, Paul decided not to visit immediately. He wanted to see how the church would respond to the letter's tone before coming in person. He ended up sending Titus to see how things would turn out, and that is what we see in the balance of the chapter.
Applying Paul's Affliction to Your Life
Let us pause and apply this to your life, not just leave it at Paul's life. It may be that at this very moment you find yourself in a position like Paul's — conflicts without, fears within, hardship and difficulties around you. Maybe small things have gone out of control. What started like a little trickle, a little leak in the dike, has become a creek, then a raging river, and now a tidal wave that has overwhelmed you. Maybe it was all you could do to get here today. Maybe the challenge is economic in its nature, or maybe it is relational. Whatever it is, it is here, and it is real.
What do you do in the midst of that? You are not alone. Especially when you begin to suffer for your faith, you are walking in the footsteps of some of the great saints of the Christian faith. How do you respond? How do you continue? How do you endure?
God Who Comforts the Downcast
The answer is there in verse 6. Paul says we had afflictions, conflicts without, and fears within — but God who comforts the depressed, also translated the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. That word denotes someone in a lowly position or a humble position, whether in social status or emotional state. It is God who comforts the downcast.
Notice that comfort is mentioned four times in these two verses. Paul comes back to it again and again. The first thing you do in the midst of affliction is not an action — it is to know something. You know that you find comfort there. If you are here today and you are hurting, if you find yourself in a low state, consider some of the greatest counsel you will ever receive: "Why so downcast, O my soul? Put your trust in me." You are not going to find true comfort in any man or in any pill. You are going to find comfort in God and in His Word.
The God of All Comfort
Those repeated references to comfort should call to mind something examined earlier. Turn back to chapter 1, where Paul gives us very important information in verses 3 through 4. He says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." Every comfort, every form of comfort, every true act of comfort, every comfort we find in our life comes from God. That word comfort is the very familiar Greek word paraclete — the one who comes alongside — and it is another name for the Holy Spirit.
Finding Comfort in the Holy Spirit
Some of you have been dealt dirty. I know that. Some of you come from backgrounds that are pretty tough and difficult, and you didn't have a mom and dad who were there at every step of the way saying, "Hang in there, Biff. You'll be all right." Some of you are in the midst of situations now where you've had a spouse abandon you, with not a lot of responsibility on your part. Hardship and hard work — I understand that.
So where do you find comfort? It's all in the same place — the One who comes alongside. It's the Holy Spirit. It's the great message of hope that Jesus gives the disciples on the night He's betrayed. In John 14, He says, "I'm going to send you another."
In fact, Jesus makes this extraordinary pronouncement. He says it's better for you that I leave. I remember the first time I read that — it just blew me away. I think of what would be the greatest thing, and for me the greatest thing would be having Christ right here. But He says, no. It's better for you that I'm gone, that I go to the cross, that I die, that I rise again. Why? So that the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Helper — the Holy Spirit — can come alongside.
Jesus says this, so I have to assume it's true: we are actually better off than those apostles were, because we don't have Jesus in our midst — we have the Holy Spirit in our life. He comforts us in verse 4. He comforts us in all our affliction. That's where we find comfort. That's where we find strength. That's where we find courage — in Him and Him alone.
Comfort in the Midst of Affliction
He comforts us in our affliction. It doesn't say that He removes the affliction. We may pray like this: "God, You know the challenge we have. You know the difficulties and the hardship. We want You to take it away — get it out." He says, no, I don't think so. I'll do something better, though. I'll climb into the midst of that suffering and pain with you.
You're not really sure how that begins to look, and then all of a sudden the people around you say, "How do you endure? How do you handle this? How can you keep this up?" And you find yourself saying, "I don't know. I just do." Well, it's the God who gives you comfort in the midst of your affliction.
One of the side benefits to the rest of us — to the body — is that you are now able to comfort those who are in affliction with the same comfort with which God comforted you. Now you have a story to tell. Does that mean you have to go through a specific hardship? Do I have to be an alcoholic to talk to an alcoholic, or a drug addict to talk to a drug addict, or a single mom to talk to a single mom? No. But it does say that in the midst of this affliction, now that I've experienced God's comfort, I have a platform to begin to speak to that person. I can say, "I've been there. I've done that."
The Comfort God Sent Through Titus
Back to chapter 7, verse 6 — it's God who comforts us. He did it in Paul's life in this instance by the coming of Titus. It means Titus' physical presence. And when Titus came, he came with a message: "We were comforted by which he was comforted in you."
As Paul reports, Titus told him of the Corinthians' longing, their mourning, their zeal for him — and so Paul rejoiced even more. When Titus came back, he said there's a longing on their part, a desire to get together. There's a mourning, a brokenness, a godly sorrow over the sin that created this division, and they want to see it mended. There's a zeal — they've even become defenders of Paul against the false accusations, against his teaching, and against his apostleship. Paul said that is a source of great comfort.
God comforted them. How? He comforted them through a person — Titus. And what did Titus do? He brought great comfort to this anxious heart. The external pressures of the church were bearing in on Paul, and God helped Paul in the midst of this through Titus.
Sorrow That Leads to Repentance
Verse 8: "For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it." Wait a minute — does he regret it or not? What is he saying? When he talks about that letter, he's referring to a previous communication we don't have a copy of — a previous letter in which he was very straightforward and confrontational concerning the sin that was present in the body.
He says, "I didn't regret it, though I did regret it." This is very similar to what he wrote a little earlier in this same letter, in chapter 2, verse 4: "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you."
So going back to verse 8, what he's saying is: I don't regret writing it — it was the right thing to do, the appropriate action to take. I do regret that it was hurtful to you, and I do regret that there's pain involved. But he saw that the letter caused them sorrow only for a while.
So often in our own lives we won't deal with the sin we have, and often we're very hesitant to deal with sin we see in other people's lives. It is not a pleasant task to sit down with somebody and say, "You've got this, and this, and this, and this." A little advice — the first thing you better do is get the log out of your own eye before you start venturing into those waters, but you still need to do it. Paul is saying: I regret that I caused you some short-term pain, but I don't regret that it had a long-term beneficial effect — and that is, you ultimately dealt with your sin.
The Goal of Godly Confrontation
I think from the pulpit I am pretty straightforward, but one-on-one I find it very difficult at times to be confrontational. I know certain people who just tell it like it is, but the path through their history is strewn with bodies to give evidence of that. There is nothing great about telling it like it is — that becomes an excuse to say whatever you want to say. What the apostle calls us to do here is different: with a soft, tender heart, confront those things that are sinful.
What has made me more willing to do this is that I have seen firsthand the benefit of it. If you don't deal with that sin, if you don't hit it head-on and say, "Here it is" — and sometimes you can define it clearly, but always you can say, "Here it is, here is the effect, and you need to deal with it" — as painful, hurtful, and difficult as that is both to say and to hear, it is the only way to break through to true repentance.
Sorrowful to the Point of Repentance
That is exactly what Paul says. He said, "I now rejoice. Not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance." He is saying: God did what I wanted Him to do in this case — help you see your sin — and you responded positively to that. You were made sorrowful according to the will of God. That is a strong statement. How can you say that about a person in a particular situation — that they were, in fact, sorrowful according to God's will?
Look at verse 10, and he gives you the answer: "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, and it leads to salvation." That is how Paul knows they were sorrowful to the point of God's will — they were sorrowful to the point of true repentance. He then draws the contrast: there is also a sorrow that the world produces, and it leads to death.
John MacArthur writes that the word "leading" is supplied by translators, and that Paul was saying repentance belongs to the very sphere of salvation — it is at the heart of and proves one's salvation. Unbelievers repent of their sin initially when they are saved, and then as believers they repent of their sins continually to keep the joy and blessing of their relationship with God. Paul is not talking here merely about that point in time where someone moves from being a child of wrath to a child of God.
Spurgeon writes this: "A Christian must never leave off repenting, for I fear he never leaves off sinning." There is in the Christian life this continual sense of repentance. So this idea of repentance can be understood in two ways: it is repentance that leads to salvation — to a person's soul being converted — or it is repentance that leads back to the joy and blessing of salvation. "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation," the psalmist cries out, from a heart broken over his sin.
Remorse Versus Repentance
Going back to verse 10, Paul is talking about repentance — changing our mind, changing our purpose, or changing something we have done. And he draws a critical distinction, one we can frame as the difference between remorse and repentance. Someone has written it this way: remorse is sorrow over being caught, or over the pain of consequences that follow. Repentance is not being concerned for ourselves but having a contrite heart. It is a heart condition.
Remorse and repentance, at their initial stages, frequently look the same. I cannot look at a person's heart. Going back to verse 10, Paul lays out the distinction: you have godly sorrow that produces and leads to salvation, and you have worldly sorrow. Worldly sorrow involves great big tears, lots of "I'm sorry," lots of "I wish I hadn't," and maybe even "I won't do it again." There are phrases like, "I'm sorry I hurt you — can you find it in your heart to forgive me?" So how do you know whether that is true repentance or just remorse?
There is only one way to know: time. It looks the same on the surface. I have sat in my office and watched people cry what appeared to be genuine tears — "I am sorry, I am broken, I hurt so much" — and I try to respond as cordially and politely as I can, but I feel compelled to tell them: we are not going to know for a while.
We Will See
I remember being with Larry one day, not long after I had become a Christian. A man came up, crying, and said, "I am sorry. I am broken. I have sinned. God, forgive me. Larry, forgive me." He walked away, and I said, "Man, that is incredible." Larry said, "We'll see." I thought he was being cynical. But that is exactly what real repentance is — it is in it for the long haul.
True repentance is a change of behavior over a long period of time. Obviously, this plays itself out differently in every circumstance. But when a sin is grievous, when people have seen it — especially at the level Paul is talking about here, where it is a public sin affecting the body — repentance is not just something that happens in a single moment. It happens in a moment, and then it extends over a long period of time.
How do you know if a person is truly repenting? We will see how they begin to respond to instruction.
The Marks of Godly Repentance
Paul summarizes what he has said by pointing to the evidence of true repentance in the Corinthian church. He writes, "...for behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you." He then offers a series of words to describe what he has observed. There is vindication — not a desire to clean yourself up, but to clean the situation up. You are not out there defending yourself at every turn.
There is an outrage over sin, a brokenness over sin, a desire and a concern to not do anything that displeases God, to see relationships mended and brought together, and to see these things settled. In verse 12 Paul writes, "...so although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender, nor for the sake of the offended." Paul and Titus may well have been the people who were offended here. Paul's point is that his concern was not to secure punishment, but that their earnestness on their own behalf would be known to them in the sight of God. That remorse is to be blatantly obvious to all who are involved — and how do they see it? Life change, over an extended period of time.
The Joy of Titus
Paul continues: "For this reason we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoice even more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all." Titus came to the Corinthians perhaps with some trepidation, not knowing exactly what he was walking into. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 10 and 11, Paul writes, "...now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid, for he is doing the Lord's work as I am. Let no one therefore despise him." Paul must have thought there was at least some possibility the church would do something that would produce fear in Timothy's life, and probably in Titus's life as well.
Titus walked into the middle of a difficult situation. There had been communication back and forth, there had been a severe and very straightforward letter — one Paul regretted and yet did not regret — and they did not know exactly how the church had responded up to that point. Yet when Titus arrived, it says he was comforted. There was joy in Titus's life, because he saw godly repentance. That is the joy of true godly repentance.
Confidence Restored
In verses 14, 15, and 16, Paul writes: "I have told him how proud I was of you, and you didn't disappoint me. I have always told you the truth, and now my boasting to Titus has also proved true. Now he cares for you more than ever when he remembers the way you listened to him and welcomed him with such respect and deep concern. I am very happy now because I have complete confidence in you."
That is what happens when godly repentance is genuine. Sin is an ugly thing, and yet it is a reality in our lives. In this instance, Paul is dealing with public sin — sin from individuals within the church, accompanied by the church's failure to deal with it and handle it. And Paul says there is great joy here. God's will has been done. The congregation responded according to the will of God. How do we know? There was remorse that changed into repentance and a change of life behavior.
A Call to Repentance
Perhaps you are here today in the midst of sin. What do you do? You repent. Perhaps you have someone in your life who has sinned, someone who is in the wrong. These are always difficult situations, but you do not ignore it — that will not get you anywhere. You do not pretend it does not exist — that will not help. You have to deal with that sin in a loving, kind way.
There is great joy in this chapter. It is cause to smile, because there is joy in true godly repentance as you see God work in a person's life — and in this case, in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, in the life of a church. May we respond to sin that same way.
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*Father, thank you for your truth and your Word. Thank you for the men and women who are here today, and I pray you take this very tough truth and apply it to our hearts. Let us be straightforward in the way we deal with sin and pain in people's lives. God, we pray that you would break us over our sin, and that we would have a broken and contrite heart. God, we ask your Spirit to do that work in our lives. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.*