Audio Transcript:

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Morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church, my name is Jan, one of the pastors here along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card that you should have gotten at the back at the welcome table. If you fill it out legibly, and then redeem it at the welcome table, you'll get a gift there. And then if you give us your mailing address, we'll send you another gift in the mail to say thank you for coming out. With that said... Oh, also we have a membership class today. So if you're not a member, you're interested in membership, and if you're not interested you should be, we have a class with lunch provided with I think Burritos. Burritos, heavenly manna. And so we usually order more, so if you didn't sign up, you're still welcome to come, I'll give you mine.

With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you created a place for us, a space for us, you created this earth, and you gave it to us to rule over under your dominion. And Lord, we rebelled against you, we like the prodigal son ran from you because we thought life would be more enjoyable without you, without your love and it's not. Jesus, we thank you that you the older brother, you did came looking for us, you lived with us and you loved us, and you loved us enough to speak the truth to us, and the truth got you crucified. Our sin got you crucified.

We thank you Holy Spirit that you are with us and we repent of the fact that often we have grieved you, we repent. I pray that you bless our time in the Holy Scriptures, I pray that you make us the people who know the truth and love the truth, repent when we transgress against the truth, people who know your love as you define, and people who carry a culture of speaking truth and love anywhere we go. We speak what needs to be said, we have the courage to say it, but it's only because we love. We pray that you bless our time in the Holy Scriptures and show us that you call us to make room for people who disagree with us, to engage with them, to have hard conversations. I pray you remove any spirit of self-censorship from our church, from our homes. Bless our time in the Holy Scriptures, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

My last sermon two weeks ago, I said some things that ruffled feathers, and I will address those comments today at the end of my sermon, so you have to pay attention until we get there. I've learned from my mistake, don't do it in the introduction. The title of the sermon is Ride or Die. I come from a big family, I have four siblings. And my extended family is also large, my dad has five siblings, my mom has 10 siblings. So I have family all over the world. And one of the things that our family, or one of the culture or core values of our family is we're ride or die. If you're part of my family and you text me when you're in a bind, I am there and I roll deep.

I'll give you just a story from my own family. I remember when I was 13 years old, my goal in life, my American Dream, other people want picket fences, my American Dream was to get a car. So at age 17 I finally saved up enough for a car, I got my license. I bought a stick shift but I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, but it was cheaper than the not. So I got this car and I loved it. It was an Audi 80, just old, nasty, just problems all the time, but it was fast. And one time I got pulled over by a cop for doing 79 in a 35. It was a speed trap. I was doing 79 in a 55 but it turned to 35 downhill. And so my ticket was $450, I go to my dad and I say, "Paps, help me out." He said, "You bought the car, all the bills with the car are your bills."

So I had to get a job, and I got a job. The only job I could get was delivering newspapers. So I'd wake up at 3:30 AM, and go to the place and fold up the newspapers. And then this is back in the day. This is people used to read newspapers. This is back like AOL, like Juno, like Jan.Vezikov@juno.com. You know what I'm saying? AIM, my name was Jantheman. Way back. Way back. So I realized it's hard to drive stick shift and deliver newspapers, so I would just stall all the time and it was terrible, late for school that first day. I come home, I tell my sister, "I can't deliver newspapers in my car." She said, "What time are we waking up?" 3:30 AM she's with me. I'm driving, she's tossing. And we did that for a month, just long enough to get $450. Ride or die.

This text doesn't make any sense unless you understand that St. Paul views church like that, many of us don't. Many of us don't understand church like that. Many of us view church as it's like the movies. How often do you go to the movies when something good is playing? St. Paul viewed as family. He was like, "I'm a spiritual father, and I'm going to say things that are going to grieve you because I love you. And I'm doing it for your good, for your benefit because we're ride or die." That's the heart. And if you know me, I preach expositional message, I go verse by verse, and we explain. This one's a little different. I'm going to cover all the verses, but this one is kind of like an onion. You don't really understand the heart of what's going on unless you go layer by layer, by layer, by layer and then you get into the heart, and that's what we'll do today.

2nd Corinthians 7:12-16, would you look at the text with me? "Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I'm acting with great boldness toward you, I have great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. But God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoice still more. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you though only for a while.

As it is I rejoice, not because you are aggrieved, but because you were aggrieved into repenting, for you felt a Godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this Godly grief has produced anew but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing with zeal or punishment, at every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. Therefore, we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame, but just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. And his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have perfect confidence in you." This is the reading of God's Holy and infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. St. Paul starts with this phrase, this metaphor, this image of making room. "Make room for us," he says. He started the language. 2nd Corinthians 6:11-13, he said, "We've spoken freely to you Corinthians, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak as to children, widen your hearts also."

St. Paul is speaking as a spiritual father. This is Papa Paul. I love you, that's why I've spoken hard words to soften your hearts. It was only because of love. My heart's wide open, is yours toward me? And then in 7:2 he says, "Make room in your hearts for us." In the Greek it just says, "Make room for us in your hearts." In the English translation, they put that in because the parallel is in your hearts, but he's saying, "Make room. Is there a room at the church that I planted? Is there room for me?" St. Paul is saying. "We have wronged no one and we've corrupted no one, and we have taken advantage of no one.

In Mark chapter two, Jesus Christ goes back to his hometown of Capernaum, and he starts preaching, he starts preaching in the house. And the house is filled with religious leaders, they want to know what Jesus is teaching. And then the gentleman that gets to the door he gets carried there by his four friends, and his friends want this gentleman to be healed by Jesus, but the religious leaders won't let him in. They won't make room for a person who is different than them. They don't make room for a person who needs Jesus more than they need Jesus. And then finally, the friends were like, "All right." They climbed to the top of the house, they dismantled the roof, so I always feel bad for the owner of that house, but what are you going to do? The guy is more important.

Lo and Jesus heals and forgives his sins. Jesus makes room for him. Jesus knows what it feels like to be rejected, and so Jesus really does care about making room for those on the fringes, those who have been ostracized. And that's what St. Paul is saying is that, "I make room in the church. I love you." He said, "You have room in my heart, now let's reciprocate." And this is how we'll frame up our time. You know someone is in your heart when you're willing to be grieved by them. You're willing to grieve them, you're bold around them, you're willing to eagerly repent, you're willing to joyfully forgive, you're comforted by them, and you die or live with them. This applies to every relationship.

First, you're willing to be grieved by them, this is what it means to love. What it means to love is you open your heart to someone else. You let them in, you make them family, and you make yourself susceptible, you make yourself vulnerable to being hurt by them. That's what it means to love. It's the same thing God did, he creates us. And he's not aloof. He's not just transcended, he's also imminent, he's with us and he feels when we offend. Genesis 6:5-6, this is right before the flood, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and had grieved him in his heart."

He saw what was happening. Where is God when there's evil in the world? He's right there. He feels it. Just like Jesus Christ, he made himself vulnerable, God becoming man. He let those whom he loved crucify him. Isaiah says that Jesus was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was despised and we esteemed him not. This explains why St. Paul is so worried about this church. He planted the church, he's in Ephesus planting another church, he hears the church isn't doing well. They've allowed unrepentant sin in the church. They're actually celebrating the sin. And he hears about it, writes 1st Corinthians, hard words for hard hearts.

And then he's grieved. How are the words accepted? Did they receive them and did they repent? And he says in verse four, he's worried, "I'm acting with great boldness toward you, I have great pride in you, I'm filled with comfort in all our affliction. I'm overflowing with joy for even when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. We were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within." He's anxious for the church. He's afflicted with thoughts about the church. How many of you think about church outside of church? How many of you think about church on vacation? I had last Sunday off, I could do anything I want. I could have slept in till 2:00 PM. I came to church. On my day off? Yeah. It's my favorite thing in the world. Which service did you? I went to both. I was the last person out of the room.

You know what I do for fun? I study other churches. You know what I do? Honestly, you know what? I listen to sermons. I watch football, but I listen to sermons while watching football. I redeem the time. Tanya and I went to a marriage retreat to Maine, the Cliff Hotel. It's awesome. We had an oceanfront room and I didn't think about church once. We were there Monday through Wednesday. Didn't think about church once for like an hour. Then I got texts and emails and phone calls, and then I realized, "Yeah, it's family." If your mom calls you when you're on vacation, will you pick up? It's family. That's how he feels.

St. Paul here picks up from the excursus. In chapter 2:13 what he did was, he was telling us about why he's writing, how he felt. He was writing about the fact that he's in Ephesus and he sends Titus to Corinth, and Titus then is supposed to bring a message back to Paul, but Paul waited. Titus didn't come, he goes to Troas hoping to meet Titus there, and then he goes to Macedonia's church planting, and still thinking about the church the whole time. He's exhausted. He said, "Our bodies had no rest." I once heard a pastor say, "Don't complain about how hard your job is to your people." He said, "Everyone thinks you work one hour a week and you play golf the rest of the time." He said, "What do you want? A violin? What do you want?"

Well, St. Paul knows, he's comforted by the fact that God knows. God knows. This is verse six. "But God who comforts the downcast," the word downcast here is depressed. St. Paul experienced a spiritual depression. Not a physical depression, a spiritual depression over his concerns about the church. He said, "But God comforts the downcast. Comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal, so that I rejoice still more." His joy is so wrapped up in the joy of the church and their health and their maturity and their growth, that he doesn't experience joy until they experience joy.

Any parent knows when your baby is sick at night, you can't sleep normally. You can't. You're riddled with anxiety because you love this little human being. You're allowing that person's pain to be your own pain. You're allowing them to grieve you. Phillips Brooks was a pastor in Boston, you see his statues Downtown. He said this and he wrote a work called The Influence of Jesus. He said, "To be a true minister to man is always to accept new happiness and new distress. The man who gives himself to other men can never be a holy sad man, but no more can he be a man of unclouded gladness. To him shall come with every deeper consecration of before untasted joy, but in the same cup shall be mixed a sorrow that it was beyond his power to feel before." That's how deeply St. Paul loved. He's willing to be grieved. God knows this, God's experienced that kind of love.

Titus finally arrived, brought encouragement to Paul, and Paul experiences immense relief. That the message was received, the people repented, the relationship has been reconciled with God. They showed Titus hospitality, communicated their eagerness to see Paul. But it wasn't until that moment that he could rest. 2nd Corinthians 2:13 before the excursus he said, "My spirit was not at rest, because I did not find my brother Titus there so I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia." Parallel language, 2nd Corinthians 7:5, meaning this is the end of the excursus. "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within."

Do you love your brothers and sisters like this? Do you love brothers and sisters in the church like this, where you're willing to be grieved by them? And I say this specifically to a church in Boston. I mean a lot of people, they just come to Boston, this is just a pit stop. This is just, "I'm here. I'm going to get what I need, and then I'm out. I'm going to Florida." "Can I come with you?" But while you're here, love like this. 2nd Corinthians 7:13, "Therefore we are comforted." This is the whole idea of like he's comforted by them, meaning he was grieving over them, meaning he wraps up his joy with them. "And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed by you all."

You can't love without opening yourself up to being grieved. God loves God. Jesus loves Jesus. Holy Spirit loves us. As Christians, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and Ephesians 4:30 says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit with your sin. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit." Second is you're willing to grieve them. If you really love them, you're willing to grieve them. 2nd Corinthians 7:8, "For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while." What's going on here? "I regret writing what I wrote, but I don't regret writing what I wrote. I'm sorry that it made you feel sorry, but I'm not really sorry because you're sorry." That's what he's saying.

And sometimes I do this where I say something, and I'm like, "Oh, I'm so sorry." And they're like, "Are you really?" I'm like, "No, because we're finally talking about the thing." That's what he's saying. He loves them enough to have the hard conversation, the uncomfortable conversation. That's what it means to love. You want the best for the person. This is what it means to love a child, to parent a child. You want the best for the child, so every once in a while you get down and you look your child in the eyes and you say, "I love you more than anyone else on earth. I love you more than your mom does. I love you more than anyone else on earth."

And listen to me, I need to tell you something. This is not a comfortable conversation. Do you think I want to have this? No, I don't. But I love you more than I love my comfort so I'm going to speak. No one likes a surgeon's knife, but pain is worth it if it cuts out the disease. Unpleasant truth, life-altering truths. This is what it means to preach the gospel and to teach how to live a life in a manner worthy of the gospel. You tell people, "Hey, your life is not in step with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're not living as someone who is saved." To have that conversation, you tell people that they need to change their life. That's not easy.

Life-altering, lifestyle implication truths. Sit down with someone and say, "Hey, we got to talk. I know where you were this weekend. I saw from your Instagram story. It wasn't even your story, you got tagged in it, and I know exactly where you were. And that story didn't stay in Vegas." A conversation like that. Lifestyle conversations. St. Paul says, "If you love, you speak directly." Jesus was willing to grieve the people closest to him. His closest friends. Who Was Jesus' best friend? It was Peter. John thinks it was John, but he wrote down in the Gospel of John, a little biased I think. I think Jesus was like, "John, you're my best friend," and then, "Peter, you know you're my best friend."

He goes to Peter, he's like Peter, "You're my rock, you're my foundation. I will build my church using you as you proclaim the Gospel." And sometimes Peter was dumb as a rock too. So in the very next breath, he says to Jesus, Jesus just told him, "Hey, I'm going to die to save you." And Jesus says, "No." "Jesus, I will go to war for you." And Jesus says, "Get behind me," and what does he call him? Satan. "Get behind me Satan." That's offensive. And at that moment, Peter could have written Jesus an email and said, "Jesus, you're not a good pastor. I'm leaving this church. I'm going to find another one of our pastors that doesn't call me Satan."

He doesn't deal with the state of friends like, "Yeah, all right, my bad. Hug it out." Truth, love. You can speak truth when you know you love each other no matter what." I got a sister who's a vegan. She's done all the analysis and she says she believes that this is the healthiest way to live. I always tell her, "You got a supplement. If you got a supplement and stuff, then you're not getting that stuff." "Oh, yeah..." I make fun of her all the time for it, she makes fun of me for eating meat. We're still family. On her birthday, I got her a vegan sweatshirt. It's pink. It's made with vegan materials. Because that's what families do. You speak about uncomfortable things because you know you're not going anywhere. You're not going anywhere. That's love.

And three is you're bold around them, because you're not afraid of offending them because they're not going anywhere. You're bold around them. 2nd Corinthians 7:4, "I am acting with great boldness toward you. I have great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I'm overflowing with joy." So look how, "I love you, I am proud of you, I take comfort in you. You know that. And I'm going to speak with great boldness." And all this is in the Greek is freedom to speak. Cut to the chase, speak plainly. Jesus used the same phrase in John 16:25. He said, "I have said these things to you in figures of speech, the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father." I'm going to speak plain. I'm going to speak plain to you.

The more you love a person, the more you're willing to just cut to the chase, and I respect that. That's when I know you really love me. When you have to sit down with someone and you have to say, "All right, this meeting is going to be an hour. We'll spend the first 45 minutes talking about how I really appreciate this person and I love this person, and then finally, I'm going to say what needs to be said. And the whole time I'm like, "I know what you're doing. Just get to the point." The longer you know each other, my wife and I, 16 years. October 23rd was 16 years from the day that we met. We're at a point where she was sitting in the first service up top. She sits up top when she thinks it's going to be controversial sermon, and she communicates with me through the air.

If you've been married for a while, you know. "I know exactly what you're saying." She didn't like my sermon last week, or two weeks ago. I said, "Why didn't you?" I said, "Did I say anything untrue?" She said, "No." She said, "I'm just afraid people are going to hate you and you're going to end up in prison." I said, "Oh, so you get it. We're on the same page." She's like, "Yeah." She said, "Also, can you stop freaking people out with General Jan?" I was like, "I was talking about holy war. What do you want?" So today I'm, "This is Papa Jan." This is more. I even wore a different shirt. This is my dad bod shirt. Just I didn't even do anything to my hair. I'm like, "This is dad. We're going to have dad jokes and we're going to talk about what matters."

You're bold, you can speak. What the Holy Spirit has laid on you, you can speak that with people that you truly love. And I'm afraid, I'm afraid that we're losing that at this church. We're definitely losing in the culture, I'm afraid we're losing it. One of my jobs as lead pastor and founder of this church, one of my jobs is I am a culture creator. Whenever I see something in the church, where I don't like the culture, I speak and we change things. For me, it's really important to have tremendous music. I love... I wish so...We have one of the best worship bands in all of the nation. And I know it because I watch other church services for fun. We do. They crush it, they crush it. Even on the livestream like, "Yeah." It's better in person, but even in a live stream, meeting it up. That's culture.

Good coffee, its culture. If we have food, we're going to have good food. We're going to have a brisket and there's going to be enough brisket for everyone. I kind of laid an egg last time, I take ownership. Next time we're going to have more brisket. Culture. And I want a culture, I dream about a culture of being able to speak truth however uncomfortable, because we love each other that much. Where there is no self-censorship, where there are no topics off the table, bring whatever topic, free liberal exchange of ideas. Harvard University was started with that at the heart by the Puritans. They said, "This is how we are going to reclaim, recreate culture. We're going to take every single idea, whatever subject, and we're going to analyze it through the lens of Holy Scripture. If the idea is God glorified, we test the spirit, it glorifies God, it's going to further the common good, it's a good true beautiful idea, yes, we take it."

"No, we reject it." We'll say it has gone to war against truth, and it does that with postmodern, there is no truth. And then censorship, people aren't speaking about what's true. St. Paul here says no. Like Jesus who is truth, we don't tiptoe around the truth. I get emails and texts and calls every once in a while with good friends of mine listening online, they're like, "I can't believe you said that thing." And I always, I like, "Why? Is it not true?" Like, "No, it's true, you just can't say in Boston." I say, "Why not? Is there some force field around Boston where there's things you can't say?" Apparently there is. And you know this force field, I experienced this force field.

I just spent three days with my wife in Maine, we had our room was ocean view. I've never had that in my life. I spent three hours on the balcony just staring at the ocean, talking to God. My wife's like, "You going crazy?" I was like, "No, I'm praying." Because I like praying, I'm going to keep worshiping God, turn on music. And then I'm driving home on Store Road, my wife and I we weren't even talking. We were talking but not talking. As soon as I hit Store Road, I go, "Oh." Just angst, pain, ennui, the Russian word called toska, and you should look it up, T-O-S-K-A, toska. Tolstoy wrote about it, and Solzhenitsyn did. My soul was crushed. My wife is like, "What's happening to you? Can we go back to Maine?" I was like, "Please."

Going honestly four hours. I had a brother who stopped by my place and he's like, he didn't say anything but he knew. And then three days later, he's like, "Yeah, you were just weird." It was like depressed, I was depressed. It's spiritual war, and it manifests itself where you can't say things. No, we're going to speak truth in Boston as it is in heaven. And we need to fight for that culture. Four is you're willing to eagerly repent when someone speaks truth to you. And you say, "Yeah, this is true. It's from the Holy Scriptures. I'm not lying. My life isn't in line with the scriptures." Verse two he says, "Make room in your hearts." For us, we've wronged no one, we've corrupted no one, we've taken advantage of no one. So before St. Paul, the great St. Paul starts poking around in other people's eyes to take our specs, he checks his own eyes. He looks at the Holy Scripture as a mirror and he said, "I got a log."

Do I? If I got a spec. He says, "Show me where I'm wrong. Show me where I've sinned. Change my mind. I'm willing to repent." The false teachers accused him of lying, of being unreliable, because he didn't come for a visit. He couldn't control those things, he's not a sovereign. He's asking, "Did we sin against you?" He's saying, "I have a clear conscience to you." We don't believe, I don't believe in sinlessness. Only Jesus was sinless. So we don't believe in sinlessness, but we do believe as Christians in sinning less. As you grow in your faith, you are to be more sanctified. You are to grow in holiness. With day by day, a year goes by, you should be more holy then you were a year ago. And when people see you they should say, "What happened? You're different."

Too many of you are managing sin, the same sin over and over. You commit the sin and then you go repent, you take communion, you go commit the sin. Just a cycle of wasted life, wasted talents, wasted zeal. My wife told me last week, she's like, "You're talking about holy war? There's people in the church who have not won the war over porn." Holy War. We'll win that war first, win that battle. I'm tired of pastors getting up and talking about, "Oh, we're so broken. Oh, yeah, we're so sinful," and talking about it with a defeatist spirit as if true freedom can't be experienced from a sin. Jesus Christ said, "If you struggle with sexual sin, cut off your arm and pluck out your eye." Savage.

I'm going to write a book called Savage Jesus. And I'm saying that out loud just so no one steals the title. Stop. Stop sinning. Stop sinning. True freedom can be found, and it feels so much better than sin management. So we repent when we are called out? Jesus never repented so we can't look to him and say, "What does repentance look like?" But he did repent on our behalf. On the cross he said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Meaning ignorance is not a defense against God. At the judgment, you can't say, "I didn't know." Because you know what Jesus says? It doesn't matter, you're still guilty, and you're still guilty because you didn't know. You didn't know. You did know that was a sin, you did know. And God knows that you know.

So we are to repent, and we are to believe, and this is how we grow in the Christian life. We repent and we believe, we repent and we believe and we got blind spots brothers and sisters next to us. They tell us speak truth in love. The first of Martin Luther's 95 theses, he says this, "When our Lord and master Jesus Christ said repent, he will the entire life of believers be one of repentance." Real. That's your whole life. Every day repent, believe, repent, believe. What is repentance? How can we know that it's real repentance? How can we know that it's true, and can it be distinguished from its imitations? Yes. And that's what St. Paul continues. He says, "I'm willing to joyfully forgive," and that's point five, "because I know that this is a real, true repentance."

Verse nine, "As it is, I rejoice not because you were grieved but because you were grieved into repenting. For you fairly Godly grieved so that you suffered no loss through us, for Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Whereas worldly grief produces death." Now he's differentiating, he's qualifying repentance. There's true repentance and there's false repentance. There's true repentance that starts with a Godly grief, and there's false repentance that starts with a worldly grief and it only ends in death. This one ends in salvation without regret. The reason why he needs to differentiate is because they look the same in the very beginning.

In the early stages, it's hard to differentiate which one's real and which one isn't. Because they're sorrow. Both of them are grief. When you sin and you experience the consequences of that sin, you don't have to be a Christian to be miserable about messing up your life. You ask anyone in prison, if they're grieved, they'll tell you they're grieved at being there, at their situation. When the debts run up and the bills come in, and they can't be paid and bankruptcy looms. Played around with a sin, all of a sudden you got addicted to it, and it seems like you can't live without it. You're unmarried and there's a baby on the way. Words are spoken and there's no taking them back.

Marital infidelity, the damage is done, you try to rebuild but things will never be as they were completely before. A lie was told, found out, theft, impure. Whatever the sin, troubled pain, heartbreak, grief and sorrow follow in the wake. And tears flow, self-accusation, emotional wounds, but the question is, are you convicted of the sin? Is it grief over the sin or is it grief over being exposed? Worldly grief is what people will experience at the judgment. It's when you're weeping and gnashing of teeth as they're sent to hell. That's grief. It's not Godly grief. You feel bad for yourself. You feel bad that you've sinned against yourself. You don't feel bad that you've sinned against God. You're not grieved that you grieved God. You're grieved that you're grieving.

Issa, the Scripture says saw repentance with tears and never found. Judas Iscariot, three years with Jesus Christ, and then finally he realizes what he did. It's not real repentance. Peter and David, they weren't just sorry that they got caught, Peter and David were sorry that they sinned against the Holy God. And St. Paul does this, and I think he does this intentionally because I've seen him do it before. Before he gets to the word that he really wants to use, repentance, he uses a word that's very similar to it but it's very different. Verse eight, "For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it though I did regret it. For I see that letter grieved you, though not only for a while."

The line between heaven and hell is the line between remorse and repentance. Regret, remorse, you feel sad on account of how things ended up. If you got on a time machine, you went back, you might change things. But it's my bad, I shouldn't have done that, it's my mistake. That's remorse. And it doesn't matter how deep your remorse, if it doesn't turn into repentance, it's not going to do anything. Matthew 27:3-5, the story of Judas, "Then when Judas his betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the others saying, "I've sinned by betraying innocent blood. I've sinned. I've sinned." They said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went hanged himself. "I've sinned. I've changed my mind. I shouldn't have done that."

And he didn't repent to Jesus Christ for betraying him. He could have and Jesus would have forgiven him. 2nd Corinthians 7:9, "As it is, I rejoice, not because you are grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. You were grieved into repenting for you felt a Godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us." Repent. This is metanoia. Turning around, it's a change of mind that leads to a change of heart. And the change of mind, change of heart leads to a change of life. You change how you live. Your pattern of life changes. The things you do change. Luke 22:54-62, Peter who denied Jesus shows us what true repentance looks like.

"Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house and Peter was following at a distance. They had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl seeing him as he sat in the light, and looking closely at him said, "This man also was with him." But he denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know him." And a little later, someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not." And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted saying, "Certainly this man also was with him for he too is a Galilean." But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you're talking about." And immediately as he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. He went out and wept bitterly."

Judas was grieved over the fact that he sinned. Period. Peter, as he was sitting, looks and sees the eyes of Jesus Christ looking at him, blood, sweat, tears, crown of thorns. He realized that he didn't just sin, he sinned against Christ. That's true repentance. "God, I'm sorry, I've sinned against you. I grieve over the fact that I've sinned against you. I grieve over the fact that I've grieved your heart." Sin isn't just breaking commandment, sin is breaking the heart of God. "Yes, I shouldn't have but I did. I repent." There's no lawyering up, there's no self-justification. We've sinned against God. Our sin doesn't just offend God, it pierces God.

Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy so that when they look on me, on whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly for him as one weeps over a firstborn." So when caught in sin, repent to Jesus, for your sin against Jesus. And even better, repent before getting caught. And better yet, mortify your sin. When repenting, repent with the spirit of King David who when the prophet comes and the prophet Nathan comes to him and convicts him of sin, David repents. Psalm 51:1-4, "Have mercy on me oh God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly for my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you. You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment."

Against you only. He sinned against Bathsheba, he sinned against Uriah, but he said, "Yeah, I've sinned against them, but the most egregious sin, the reason why I sinned against them is because I already sinned against you." That's where true repentance starts. Jesus Christ told us to mourn over our sin, that it's a blessing. Matthew 5:3-4, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." Verse 11, "For see what earnestness this Godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves with indignation, with fear, with longing, with zeal, with punishment. At every point you've proved yourself innocent in the matter. Remorse led to true repentance and true repentance leads to reconciliation, restoration, relationship with God and relationship with people. This is why repentance leads to action.

Westminster Shorter Catechism defines repentance like this. What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, an apprehension of the mercy of God and Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God. Full purpose endeavor after new obedience. True repentance, "And God forgive me, and God I'm yours. How do you want me to live? What do you want me to change? It leads to a change of life. And St. Paul, I just love his heart. They've hurt him, they've hurt God, but when he hears about their repentance, the first thing, he doesn't gloat, he's not like, "I told you so. You wicked sinners." They repent and he's like, "Come on. You're back in the family. You're back in the house. We'll make room for you."

When people repent, we don't gloat. Just like God doesn't gloat. God is so willing to forgive. God is standing at the door and he's waiting. He's waiting for the prodigals to come home. He's right there. And Scripture says that there's more joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner than over 99 who are no need of repentance. The fact that God rejoices when we repent should make us eager to repent. Six says, "You know you love someone when you're comforted by them. When just their presence brings you comfort, that's when you know you really love them. 2nd Corinthians 7:12-16, "So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God." I'll deal with that verse.

"Therefore, we are comforted, and besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all, for whatever boast I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting for Titus has proved true, and his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all and how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you." He's saying, I didn't write just because of the one who did the wrong, that's the man who committed an incestuous relationship with his dad's wife. I'm not writing just because of the man that was wronged and suffered the wrongness of his dad. He said, "I wrote so that you would change."

The culture of the church would change. And when they repented, he rejoices with those who rejoice, he takes comfort in them, delight from them just like God does in us. 2nd Corinthians 7:6, "But God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus." And point seven is you know you love someone when you die or live with them. 2nd Corinthians 7:3, "I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together." What a strange way to talk to Christians. Have you ever talked to a Christian like this? We're ride or die. He spent 18 months with them. I would die with you and I'd live with you.

There's some people I would die for, living with? Oh. It's like die and live. And he starts with die to show us how deadly serious he is. He's saying, "I'm not condemning you, we're family, we're brothers and sisters." And this is really the heart of the whole text. Every other verse is just a layer of the onion. Paul never lost confidence of the fact that they were Christians, and they proved Paul right. He says, "You're already in our hearts, and we know that we are in your heart as well. We saw that from your repentance." This is what he does in verse 12. "So although I wrote to you, it wasn't for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God."

He's saying, I wrote those hard things not just to deal with a particular situation, I wrote it so that you see just how much you love the family of God already. You've made room for us. Continue to do so. We're already in your hearts, just like you are in our hearts. What he says is, "Live together and die together." He uses that language so flippantly because he's like, "It doesn't matter." We're going to spend eternity together, brothers and sisters so we might as well start getting along now. You will spend eternity with people who got vaccinated and you will spend eternity with people who did not. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, repent of your sins, then you will say at the family table. You will have dinner together for all of eternity.

If you don't believe in Jesus, you will spend eternity in hell, which is just like COVID but for eternity. The COVID tension, you know that? That's what hell is. Quarantine here and isolation, that's hell. So trust in Jesus. That's my simplest way of contextualizing the gospel. So since we're on the topic, my wife has three trigger words that turn off her mind. COVID, vaccine and masks. As soon as she hears them, mind off. It's just like something trips and that's it. So I'm going to say a few things right now that will be hard to hear for two reasons that I see. The first reason is the sensitivity of the topic, the second is the simplicity of the analysis. Sensitivity of the topic. People have died. People have lost and people have suffered.

I know I've lived through it. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't talk about a hard topic, so don't let the sensitivity of the topic check you out right now. Keep listening, please. And the simplicity of the analysis, I'm going to tell you words that you've heard before. And perhaps it's just the order of the words just slightly different and I don't want you to miss the profundity of the concept because the words are so simple. "Pastor Jan, why did you mention the politically charged topic that you did two weeks ago? Emotionally charged topic? Why did you mention? You usually don't." That's right. I usually don't. Because the things we deal with here are so much more important.

Whenever something out there happens, just love each other, love God. Make sure you're going to heaven. But this thing is different. This thing is different because it's not going away. I waited, and I waited and I waited, and I was like, "A vaccine is going to come and we're stuffed. It's going." It's not. Because we have been so caught up in the details of our disrupted lives in the last 20 months, we perhaps have not understood the historical significance of what we have lived through. We have just lived through one of the greatest turning points in all of world history. Climactic. Things have changed. We're talking about the before times, and the new normal. Like an epoch has changed. We're talking about the New World Order.

This one's different, and you say, "What about love, Jesus, simple? Isn't that what we focus on?" This has everything to do with love, Jesus, simple because the battle right now, the battle is being waged over the definition of love itself, of what it means to love, of what it means to be a loving person. That's under question right now. Jesus Christ gave us the great commandment, he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself." I see my neighbor is hurting. You say, "But Pastor Jan, the reason I got the vaccine is because this is how I love God and how I love my neighbor." So should you. See, the first part I don't have issue with. That first part, you did the risk analysis. You got informed, educated, and this is how you choose to love yourself and how you choose to love your neighbor. It's a conscience issue.

Okay, great. We're in the family of God together, that's... The very second you say, "So should you," you have entered different territory. You are adding rules to the commandment of God. It's called legalism. It's what the Pharisees did. Jesus Christ didn't tell me to love my neighbor as you love your neighbor, or as you love yourself. Jesus Christ didn't tell me, "Love my neighbor as the government tells me to love my neighbor. CDC, WHO, Fauci, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna." Jesus Christ told me to love my neighbor as I love whom? Love your neighbor as you love whom? Say it together, yourself. Well, that one word changes things. As you love yourself.

So I put myself in the shoes of the person in my community group, she has antibodies. But she's being forced to get injected to keep her job, her livelihood. And I said, "Would I want to be put in that situation? No, I would not." And God forbid if the church ever put me in that situation. I'd have two questions, the first to myself, "Jan, why didn't you lead better? Why didn't you have the hard conversation? How did we get here?" And I'd ask, "Lord, is this a sign that I need to go plant a new church in Idaho, on a volcano with an airstrip, or Florida? Make America Florida again. Or Russia, that last bastion of freedom?" I just want to share my heart.

And I know I'm an outlier here, I know, but just bear with me for just a little bit. I see out there creation of two classes, and I can't change that out there. I can't. I see it creeping in here. That's what concerns me. Point to one time in world history that this has been done, the creation of two classes and it hasn't led to bloodshed. The Nazis had their Untermensch, the underclass, the inferior people, Jews, gypsies, slobs, Black people, and people with physical disabilities, political prisoners. You're subhuman, you're not even human. And then there's the Übermensch, that's what it means to be a true human. That's what a loving human being is.

Now we're living through, "Get the vaccine, enjoy society. Don't get it, but if you don't get it, it's your fault." Phrase, the pandemic of the unvaccinated? You're creating scapegoats and I know how this ends. I've seen this movie before. Two classes clean, unclean, obedient, stubborn, in, out, righteous, unrighteous, good, evil, loving, hateful. I know, I know. I'm one of the only people in the nation whose doing this. I was on a marriage retreat, 70 pastors and their wives. That was Monday. Tuesday we have breakfast, we have breakfast. All the pastors are in one room, all the pastor's wives are in the other room. And it's Q&A. "I got a Q&A, all right, I'll go."

So I go. I sit in the back. I always sit in the back. I know I'm weird, and I start talking and people are like, "This guy is weird. What's he talking about?" I just know. There's not many rooms I walk into I'm like, "All right. I belong." I'm just weird. So I walk in and I sit in the back, I'm drinking my coffee, and the head guy comes up to me. He's like, "Hey, Jan, I want you to sit in the front. I got three seats up there and I want the room to look a little more full, so would you please sit there?" I hate when people do that. I never do that to anybody. Whatever. I respect the guy, I go to the front, I sit down, there's question and answer. "How do you lead your wife? How do you love your wife?"

I'm like, "You guys are all pastors. Just love her. Talk about Scripture together. pray together, eat good food together. Have fun together. Tell her a joke. Make her laugh. That works." I'm sitting there, I'm like, "All right." Okay, now we're half an hour in, we got another half an hour to go, people stop asking questions. And I'm like, "All right, I got nothing else to do." And I said, "Are all questions allowed?" They're like, "Sure." The guy who was leading is from Brooklyn, the guy who was ahead of church planting here in Greater Boston, and the guy who's a megachurch pastor in Georgia, those were the three guys. First guy says, "Oh, here's my question." I said, "How do you minister to people in your church who are getting fired from their jobs for not getting the vaccine, and the religious exemption isn't accepted?"

First guy says, "Religious exemption? I didn't know we have two different religions." I know. What he's saying is, Christians don't even ask this question, because the loving thing to do is to get the vaccine. In his mind, this isn't even a category. It's like these Christians aren't even welcome to the conversation. The second guy said, "I have never even thought about that." The third guy said, "We just decided not to give out religious exemptions." I know. I'm one of the only people that's ringing the bell. Do you realize what is happening here? This is an ungodly worldly sentiment that's creeping. There's churches. I used to deeply respect these pastors. On their website it says, "We have seating arrangements. On the first floor, it's for vaccinated people. For everyone else, you can sit over there."

Okay, verses in James that says not to do that. What concerns me is this ungodly sentiment creeping in here where there's people in the church and I hear things, walk around asking, "Are you vaccinated so I know whether I can hug you?" No, no, no, get that out of here. Do what the rest of us do. We don't hug. We awkward fist bomb just like, "Yeah, I'll hug you with my eyes." Do that. Don't bring... I don't check for vaccination status at the door of my house. I don't do that. I'll close with this. I was at another pastors meeting this week in Truman Temple, and they had chicken and rice guys, it was so good. And they had trays of food, really, really good. And so I heaping plate, annihilated it, and then see there's more food. I'm like, "Which tray am I taking home?"

But they didn't do that. But they gave us styrofoam little things that you can take food home, so I pile it up. And just I'm pumped, I'm bringing food home for my girls. How do you love your wife? You bring food home. Hunters and gatherers. So I'm walking down the street, walking Park Street into the T, and as I'm on Park Street there's a gentleman sitting there in front of the Park Street, and he says, "Do you have money?" "I don't have cash." I wish he had a sign with those little Venmo. I wanted to give him that tip. Then he looked at, he's like, "Food. Give me your food." I was like, "All right." I gave it to him. He opens it up, and he says, "My man." It looked that good.

And then I walk into the T and I have so much joy on my heart and I'm thinking, "Why do I have so much joy?" It's not because I did this thing because it wasn't my food, it was just like, God. And I was like, it hit me, "He treated me like a human being not as a disease carrier." He looked at me and he said, "You're a human being. I'm a human being, you got food, can I have some?" "Yeah, okay." That's love. That's love. That's what it means to love each other. You see the humanity in the person. And this is my fear, it's only lasted 20 months. We stopped seeing the humanity in each other. We stopped loving each other the way Jesus called us.

In the church of God, it's a family and there's no partiality. There's no prejudice, there's no discrimination. It doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter how you dress, it doesn't matter how you smell, it doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter to me your vaccination status, I will love you either way. And also you're not made righteous through your vaccine, you're not made righteous through not getting vax. So this spirit of judgmentalism, of classifying in your mind who are the right Christians and who are the wrong Christians, no, no. We're made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood gives us immunity from Satan, sin and death. Have you repented to Jesus Christ? Well, welcome to the family.

"I'd live with the family," St. Paul says, "I'd die with the family." Jesus lived with the family, died for his family. He makes room for us. Have you made room for him and have you made room in your hearts for those whom he has accepted, even if their perspective is different than yours? Make room in your hearts for us just like Jesus made room in his heart for you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this word. We thank you for the fact that in this church we can have hard conversations because we love each other and we want to make room for more people here. Holy Spirit continue to use us in that. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.