godly sorrow

If you have time, you should listen to this sermon, by Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Dallas. It is called "Repentance: Good Guilt." In the sermon, Chandler teaches about 2 Corinthians 7:10, the difference between godly guilt and worldly guilt. This sermon struck a chord with me, and I highly recommend listening to it.

When I first really began to understand the gospel, I was about 18 years old. One of the first things I remember learning was the difference between what the Bible calls "godly sorrow" and "worldly sorrow."

Up until I was 18, I think I had only experienced worldly sorrow. In other words, if I screwed up, I just felt bad because the things I had done were hurtful to me. This led to an endless and hopeless effort to try harder and be better, and it led to a fear of being found out.

But my life changed when I realized that ALL of my shortcomings and sins were actually offenses against God. This is the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. If I have worldly sorrow, I am sorry because I hurt myself. If I have godly sorrow, I am sorry because I hurt God.

And the Bible says that godly sorrow leads to repentance (returning to God in your thoughts and your actions) without regret, but worldly sorrow leads to death.

I still sometimes struggle to remember that ALL of my actions are related to God. All of my sin is first and foremost an offense against him. I still sometimes care more about how I look on the outside to others than I do about how my actions might grieve God.

I realize that this post is super-vague. I promise to be more detailed and personal in the future! In the meantime, listen to the sermon!